Blueberry field off Foss Mountain Road in Eaton, New Hampshire
As the year nears the autumn equinox, I am feeling ready for fall, but also wistfully looking back already on the summer of 2010.
It was hot and sunny for the most part, but we had perfect temps(in the 70's and low 80's Fahrenheit) and cool and breezy weather thankfully when we were up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in July.
There were meals eaten outdoors most every day,
griping about the crowds of day trippers and summer people congesting the Pier area and local roads,
cool dips in the Atlantic ocean to cool off(although never on a weekend, because of those crowds),
a visit from my brother's family which included my adorable little niece and nephew,
cook-outs with friends,
flowers(although I gave up on maintaining my garden by early August this year because of the heat and outdoor watering bans),
...with Ben Folds and the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra. I am SO happy it is 5:30 and I am home (finally) from work and this live Ben Folds video is my intro to the weekend(even though I have to work tomorrow, but for right now, I am trying to forget about that).
Even though I didn't go far yesterday because of my banged up car, I was still able to take my dog for her daily walk through the neighborhood. All six of our feet were in fine working condition. I had my camera in my pocket this time, so recorded a few sights along the route we took. Closest to our house, I saw these vine-covered trees. There is a small empty lot next door(which we tell ourselves has to be much too small to ever build a house on since we like this buffer zone that creates a real sense of privacy in an otherwise "crowded-with-houses" neighborhood) that is all overgrown and looks like a miniature jungle. Last year, A tree service did come and cut down some of the brush and choking vines (after the vines caused some smaller trees to actually topple over and crash down onto our wooden fence and crack a portion of it open), and the remains of these once living thick vines can still be seen.
My lucky number posted twice on a telephone pole at the end of our street.
Ever since I got Jewel(about seven years ago) and have been walking the same old streets with her, I have watched the progression of a certain neighbor's garden over the years. It started out small, but she now has a lush, slightly over-grown cottage garden full of blooms seven months out of the year. I really liked these tall sunflower-type blooms she had growing outside of her fence.
There was even a 10K Ironman race in our nieghborhood, I discovered as I walked with Jewel to the southern end. And this flag waving, hula hooping lady was the turn-around point for the runners. There was no way they could miss her!
My camera can't convey another sweet neighborhood happening, though. On Saturday afternoon, while I was cleaning up the kitchen after putting a spice cake into the oven, I heard singing from...somewhere.
Mr. F said, "Do you hear that man singing?"
And I did and thought it must be coming from R's bedroom down the hallway(she often has her iPod plugged into a speaker in there, blasting her favorite tunes).
And then Mr. F told me this wasn't the first time he had heard "that singing kid with the earphones in his ears", singing rather loudly(and with a pretty decent voice, too), while walking down the street. I had never noticed it before, though.
And, when I looked out the front door, there was a youngish man(19? 20 at the most?), striding along and singing a song. We could hear him long after he passed our house and was out of sight.
Mr. F said "more people should sing out loud like that."
Yesterday was bright blue skies and sunny and perfectly September-ish(just like the fateful Sept. 11 nine years ago, in fact) and I spent much of the day with Miss R, doing errands(grocery store, pharmacy), poking around(but not buying anything--we were good this time) in our favorite consignment shops around town ( Chameleons and The Phoenix ), and then lunch at El Fuego (very fresh & tasty Mexican fare). When we got back home, we baked an applesauce spice cake together. Of course, all this mother-daughter closeness was possible because the "boyfriend" was working all day. Otherwise, I would have been doing all this alone.
Then I left at 6:00 to meet my sister and her friend at the commuter parking lot(for carpooling) nearest to our house. I drove up with them to the Brooklyn Tea and Coffee House(so cozy inside and out) in Providence...... ..... to see Robin Lane --a musical blast from my past whom I hadn't thought about in years and years(my sister happened to notice the announcement that she was playing at the Brooklyn and got tickets for me because she remembered I had her 2 albums back then and was a fan--isn't that sweet?). She attained some local fame from out of Boston in the late 70's/early 80's--and I saw her open for the Kinks at a concert in 1980. A little background info from the Music Museum of New England site:
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Lane found her way to Cambridge in the late 1970s after a whirlwind introduction to the world of music through a great deal of hanging out with Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, which led to her singing backup on Neil Young's "Round & Round (It Won't Be Long)." The move East saw her form the hit band Robin Lane and the Chartbusters and sign a multi-record deal with Warner Bros. But raising a family came first, and Lane and her red Fender Mustang guitar stepped out of the spotlight for a number of years, mostly writing songs for others. She came back in the mid-1990s with a batch of pop, rock, and country tunes on her 1995 album Catbird Seat, reformed the Chartbusters for a couple of years, and now lives in Western Massachusetts, where she performs "living room concerts" in people's homes. (by Ed Symkus- Music Museum of New England)
The concert was very intimate--like being in some one's kitchen(there are actually kitchen tables in the Brooklyn). Robin must be about 60 now, but her voice is as warm as ever, and I even got to chat with Robin before and during the show(she tells a lot of stories and interacts with her audience throughout her performance) and she even complimented me on the necklace I was wearing(an old post-war Germany stainless steel and green Bakelite beauty that my mother had since the 1950's and I have been wearing sine the 80's).This was the big hit from 1980('81?) and the 11th video ever shown on the then new MTV. Supposedly, this song was also recently featured in the movie "Grownups".
So...there's enough music trivia. Now, let's get to the bad part of my day. Whaaa.... After the performance was done, we left the city at around 10:30 to drive back home, and were approaching the entrance to the lot where I had left my car when we noticed a tow truck, and police car and some people standing in the lot. Then I saw my husband(!) standing there talking to the police and I immediately knew something had happened to my car. Turns out, it and the green truck I had parked next to, had been hit(and damaged badly) by a car on the road that passes the lot(we were parked facing the road). It was a "hit and run" that the owner of the green truck actually witnessed because he was just getting a lift back to the lot as the car "jumped the curb"(his words) and smashed into his truck, and then the impact of that made his truck smash into the left driver's side of my poor little Ford Escort wagon. What a coincidence that the accident would happen just as the owner of the truck got back to the lot and saw it happen before his eyes?
He and his friends actually chased the car down once they realised the driver of the car(a young woman) was not stopping and continued on down the road(was she drunk? Had she been texting and driving? How did she just veer off the road like that, smash into other cars and then keep going like that?).
But they could not get her to stop--they said she was driving only 25 miles per hour(obviously her car must have sustained some damage, too) and looking straight ahead. So, they went back to the lot to examine the damage, called the police and I got there in my sister's car shortly after the police and tow truck(because the truck was damaged far worse than mine--at least mine was still drive able) arrived. From the license plate on my car, the police were able to look up my phone number and get a hold of my husband to get him there.
So now in the daylight of the next day, my car looks terrible(the front grill, front bumper, rear view mirror and passenger side ),
and we need to contact our insurance tomorrow(this hit-and-run driver, whom luckily the owner saw do it and knew her plate number so the police could get her, better have her own car insurance paid up because she is going to be having to pay for some damage otherwise), but know that this could have been far, far worse.
But, no one was hurt(not so sure about the driver who hit the vehicles, but at this point I am not so concerned about her...gggrrrr....), and I even can drive my mother's car until this is all sorted out(don't know yet how safe my car is to drive and whether we'll be getting a new one) since she will be away in Germany and Greece for the next four weeks. Still,even though my old Escort is hardly the greatest car in the world, I like my car(it has gotten me where I need to go for the last ten years with never a problem, and has even climbed steep mountain roads), so it pains me to see it all banged up like this.
