Susie’s Meanderings, Part 2

After a solid month of rain (during which, I’d like to point out, it’s been sunny in Seattle) the sun finally came out for the 4th, which meant that if I pulled my comfy couch up to my living room window, I could see the fireworks show from the comfort of home.  First of all, what a treat to have the weather so warm that I didn’t need a fleece jacket and six blankets and a child on my lap just to keep warm.  I had all the windows open and was sitting on my couch in a tank top eating ice cream.  And I had an unfettered, perfect view of the fireworks, which were spectacular.

Today has been dedicated to house cleaning, so I loaded up an old rolling suitcase with things to take to Goodwill, which is just over half a mile down the road, and got there just at noon, when they purported to open.  I had no idea that it was such a popular spot, but there were already ten people waiting impatiently at the door, peering in anxiously, and everybody eyed my donation suitcase with speculation and hope. (One barely used Fry Daddy, a similarly barely used cappucino maker and lots of winter clothes).  When someone did arrive to open, she just laughed at us all and locked the door behind her.  You would have thought there was a fire sale the way people pushed and shoved to get in the door.  But it’s done now, and I have closet space again.  Hurrah.

When I moved here in January, I bought a new showerhead for my shower.  I had learned how easy they were to change out by watching my roommate do it in our last apartment, just screw the old one off, and put the new one on.  Well, it’s that easy if you’re 6″ something and all muscle, which I definitively am not.  I tried to budge it, but no luck.  My one pair of  pliers was too small, and I suspected all I needed was the right sized wrench, but I’d go to the hardware store and get intimidated by the giant wrenches and run away.  Today I took myself in hand and walked into my lovely neighborhood hardware store and looked appropriately lost until the nice man behind the counter asked if he could help me,  I described what I needed and he took me right to the pipe wrenches (imagine, wrenches just for pipes) where a lone little dainty one that was just my size sat on the bottom shelf.   I scooped it up and with some trepidation took it home and fitted it to the joint where the shower head met the pipe.  Two gentle turns made a mockery of all my frustration and swearing in January.  In less than 30 seconds I had the old shower head off and the new, glorious, multispeed one in its place.  Now why did that take me so long?

Being that it’s a glorious sunny day outside, and I was feeling a bit ansty, I decided to try my first run around Cambridge today. I was pretty sure it would be cake, because I’ve been walking to and from work pretty frequently, carrying a heavy backpack, so how much more effort could a run really be? Quite a bit, as it turns out. I never appreciated how hilly my neighborhood was until today. I also completely forgot it was Easter, and so had to spend part of my run threading my way through the multitudes dressed up for church. I felt like a terrible heathen. Still cold air aside, it was a lovely run, or will have been once I recover.

So I signed up for a four, no five, week course which is designed to train “Boston by Foot” guides. I’m just auditing, which means I can go to the lectures and tours, with no responsibility to ever become a guide. I figured it would be a great way to meet people and learn about Boston all at once. And I think it will be all those things, though it turns out to be more about architecture and less about history than I originally anticipated, it’s still very interesting. And I’m exceptionally glad that I’m only auditing, because if it’s as cold next week as it was today, I’m skipping the tour. 90 full minutes of standing on corners in the driving rain while I hear about pilasters and hipped roofs is more than even I can do.

Tulips in the compost

Originally uploaded by SusieQ36

Have finally gotten around to uploading some pictures from my weekend in Oregon. I had one glorious hour of sunshine after the rain, so I got some nice pictures of water droplets on flowers and leaves. Today was the first day to really feel like Spring in Boston, and it seemed like all the spring flowers bloomed all at once today.

Boston 1.2009 (1)

Originally uploaded by SusieQ36

Hooray! I have pictures back on my blog. …This is the sunrise I get to see every day from my living room. I liked how the crane looked sort of like a giant dragon poised to fly. More to follow.

Here I go again.  Moving from MT which I can no longer access since my webhost “upgraded” my platform, over to Wordpress.    Time to archive the old one and start anew.  Maybe I’ll even start posting again.