A Few Weekend Observations

After spending a relaxing weekend driving over 1000 miles throughout seven states, here are a few things I have noticed.

People have no friggin' clue how to merge onto a highway. When cars on the highway are moving at 70-75 mph and you pull onto the highway doing 40, if I don't hit your ass, I'm gonna be cursing it out.

People in New Hampshire take the 30 mph speed limit a little too seriously. In Jersey, we tend to take it as a suggestion, it works better that way.

People, if I'm doing 75-80 mph, in a 65 mph zone, and the highway is basically empty except for me and you, I would appreciate if you would just pass me instead of riding up my ass.

I truly hate driving in the state of Massachusetts. Crossing over the state line after driving forever through Vermont without a rest area in sight, the words "Welcome Station Exit 26" were like an oasis in the desert. Unfortunately Exit 26 leaves you off in the most congested retail/fast food area you could ever imagine. And not a sign, arrow or inkling of where the Welcome Station might be.

Again in Mass., we followed an exit sign pointing to a Seafood restaurant. Where the exit led us was an industrial park, with no further signage as to where the seafood restaurant or any of the other places advertised might be.

When you are driving a Taurus, or a Mini Coop or any of a hundred small cars, can you just take the 3.5 minutes it takes to clean the snow off your damn roof. Do you not think when you are driving upwards of 80 mph that the snow you were too lazy to remove isn't gonna fly off into the cars behind you? I swear I avoided at least twenty sheets of ice and snow flying right toward me today.

It was encouraging to see windmills and solar panel fields throughout Vermont. Why can't this be done everywhere?

On a fun note...Where can you pull into the parking lot of a diner and hear "Wild Thing" blaring out the speakers? Tilton NH, that's where. The Tilt'n Diner is a total throwback to the 50s, 60s, 70s and it, and the food rocks.

Though not from the diner, dark chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce and toasted hazelnuts is a gift from the heavens.

I don't know how to relax.

A Fishy Situation

Why is it whenever you have a limited amount of time to get something done, you end up surrounded by incompetent morons?

Case in point, Friday afternoon I had a small window of time to run out and get a few errands done. Food shopping at Shop-Rite was one of those errands. First thing on the list was to hit the fish department for some clams for Saturday night's dinner. Because the deli area/fish department can be crowded, I ran over there first to see how much time it would take.

Good news, only one woman in front of me and she's in the middle of her order. How long can it take right? Unlike cold cuts where someone might order four or five different items, fish purchases are usually only one or two items.

It seemed that the worker was taking a longer time to get the fish together than was necessary, but whatever, how long could it take right? Ok, she finishes with that item and the customer orders something else. A dozen craw-fish. A dozen crawfish. Now a dozen crawfish aren't really enough to do anything much with, but that's not my business. My business was watching the worker attempt to reach the crawfish which were in a plastic bowl toward the front of the refrigerated case.

Now if it was me, I would grab that plastic bowl out of the case so I would not need to reach into it. But no. The worker decided to reach in and... stretching as far as she could and grabbing them ONE BY ONE.

I stood there in total disbelief. I looked at the woman whose order was being filled and by the look on her face, this did not seem odd. That might have been even scarier than the idiot behind the counter. So after reaching into the case twelve separate times, the order was complete and it was my turn.

Two dozen Little Neck clams. I thought I might lose it completely if I saw her start to grab one clam at a time, but no, something even better. There were three types of clams for sale and she did not know the difference between them. So as I stood there mentally hearing the tick-tock of minutes passing, she decided her day was too tough, gave up, and called over another worker to complete the order.

It should have taken maybe seven minutes for the woman in front of me to finish her order, and mine to be filled as well. It took twenty.

Tick Tock.

A Weekend Wake Up

Woke up at five this morning, not unusual, although since tonight might be a late one, I had hoped to get at least another hour of sleep. Walked downstairs to turn on the heat in the sunroom, my favorite room in the house. It faces northeast, so the morning sun finds it quickly, but with three walls of windows, the night chill is slow to leave.

Checking the outside temp, mid 20's does not make me happy, especially since the past two days have been in the 60's. And the dog just picked up her leash and is following me around. She's in a hurry. Me? Not so much. Too bad this is a battle she always wins.

She's getting old. We've had her for over seven years and the shelter thought she was around three when she moved in, to help us manage our lives. There's gray hair on her chin, and her body is beginning to look like old dogs bodies tend to look. Thinner, hips more prominent. She has always been a good dog, a little off sometimes, but aren't we all?

As the sun barely lit the road, we walked up the hill...east, toward the sunrise. It seems the new neighbors have moved into the house closest to ours. Guess we will be meeting them today. The dog knows the route. Up at the lake, our walks go one of two directions, so depending if I take a left or right, she knows where we will be headed.

Keeping my head down, bracing against the 25 mph gusts, I wasn't as aware of my surroundings as usual, until a loud noise got my attention. A buck chasing a doe at full speed, less than ten feet in front of us. I could feel the ground shake from the force of their hooves as they barely missed us. Any closer would not have been good, not at all. I think the dog was as stunned as I was because she didn't bark or lunge toward the deer. My blood was pumping so hard, well, I was no longer thinking about the cold.

The sun is up now, the wind has died down. A cup of tea and a little morning writing. Soon household chores will take up most of the day, but the promise of a night of live music, makes it all worthwhile.

Maybe another cup of tea before the day really begins.

Love weekends.

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What To Do...The Weekend Dilemma

It's a beautiful day at the lake. While it will be getting hot soon, right now it feels like what it is. The last taste of summer. In just a week or two, things will start to change quickly up here. I look forward to the few truly wonderful weekends of autumn but in reality, up on the mountain, there are not nearly enough of them.

Finished up a little work related business earlier. Plan to get in a walk before the temp goes up too high, but a few minutes ago I decided to grab an iced tea and sit out on the deck for a few minutes...and do nothing. Well, that lasted exactly one sip of iced tea before I went back inside and grabbed the laptop.

This was a busy week, I've erased a few tasks off the board. But I have a few more which are under a time schedule and this weekend, they require attention. Which brings me to my dilemma: Just how much time do I spend working and how little time do I give myself to relax?

Right now I'm looking at the dog for the answer, and believe it or not...I think she has it. There are two spots on the deck which she has claimed as her own. We have acknowledged her ownership over these territories by placing throw rugs in each area every morning, so her queenship is more comfortable. From these two perches she can cover the surveillance of most of the property. Her job? Apparently it is to alert us when every deer, turkey, crow, dog or person dares to approach.

Now she decided it was ok to live with us about seven years ago, and has certainly seen her share of all of the above. It seems however in a dog's world, it is a job to be taken seriously...at least for a while. Friday and most of Saturday she will really pay attention to all the possible trespassers. By Sunday...eh. Not so much. Is it boredom or just fatigue. After all, she has no backup. No other dog is coming by to relieve her.

So here's my idea. Just as she gets up and sporadically chases something or someone away, I believe I will work in spurts. Relaxing, as in doing nothing, has never been one of my strong suits. While I'm outside enjoying a beautiful breeze and blue skies...I have the laptop and I sit here writing. I can accept that. I will feel good for getting this post written and take a little stress away at the same time.

Of course, it is a holiday weekend, always time for a cocktail or four. Here's where we separate work from play. Nice, the "uncle" has just arrived with the supplemental adult beverages. Blending up a new rum recipe today.

Maybe I should have started work a little earlier this morning. Oh well...
Cheers.

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