Going solar

What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

Sometimes in long marriages you develop certain “areas.” For example, I do all the travel arrangements. My husband is the vegetable gardener. I dealt with the teachers and most of the school stuff when the kids were growing up. My husband deals with the household technology (WiFi, etc). Somehow, I relinquished much involvement in his longstanding interest in buying (not leasing) solar panels for our home. I know I agreed to have him “sign for me” when the contract was finalized. It all sounded good in the 15-30 minutes I spent thinking about it. I mean, it’s a LOT of money to pay out at once, but we will allegedly get it all back in savings within 7 years. And clearly energy prices are not going down anytime soon with Orange Dipshit messing up the entire Middle East (and everything else).

But now the day has come. The guys are on the roof. It’s happening. I mean…I knew it was coming, but it feels a bit “spontaneous.” Like, are you sure you’ve thought this through?

I guess my one day of peace and quiet is all I get after our return from very loud Brooklyn.

The banging, drilling, etc has begun.

I need to go find my earplugs now.

“Made in Philippines”

Brooklyn

I have returned from a busy weekend in Brooklyn—the borough of NYC from which my mother’s parents hailed. They left Brooklyn for another great immigrant city—Worcester MA—long before I was born, so I had never been to Brooklyn before. All my prior trips to NYC were Manhattan only.

We were there to celebrate the marriage of a beloved nephew in his early 40s and got a glimpse into his life there. A very urban life.

Due to Amtrak cancelling our train, we had to drive from Massachusetts. A last minute detour sent us over the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, from which we could see the Statue of Liberty, which was very cool. It almost made up for all the traffic we hit in Connecticut.
This part of the Brooklyn waterfront is called Pebble Beach. There are great views of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges.
Manhattan Bridge
Blue steel is a feature of the Manhattan Bridge
Jane’s Carousel, built in 1922
View of the financial district from under the Brooklyn Bridge. That’s the Freedom Tower with the black spire.
Lady Liberty in the distance
A bison puppet in Brooklyn
A herd of bison puppets 🤷‍♀️
My son and his girlfriend in front of a chain link fence with a heart on the Lower East Side/Chinatown (Manhattan), where we went for an interesting dinner
Both jellyfish (top) and chicken feet (bottom) were served as appetizers. I tried both.
I couldn’t bring myself to try the “live fish” because I was too afraid of getting a bone stuck in the back of my throat, which happened to me once as a kid.
The happy couple sharing their absolutely beautiful vows 🥹
Weather was pretty rainy so this lovely patio area was a bit soggy, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

We made it back to Massachusetts in much better time. (The traffic gods were with us.) But my ears are still ringing. Brooklyn was loud. From the constant sirens to the extremely noisy restaurants and bars, I’m happy to be home and can’t say I’m dying to head back to NYC anytime soon.

My billboard

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

If you’ve ever downloaded the “Calm” app to help deal with anxiety or insomnia or tinnitus (or all three, like me) you know that every time you open it, the words “take a deep breath” appear in white letters on a soothing purplish blue screen. It’s one of the best things about the app. Before you even start using it, it puts you in a better frame of mind.

I’d steal that for my billboard.

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Grant us peace