Spring is such a tease

Posted on March 9, 2014March 9, 2014 by Dusty Roads

Or maybe I should say Old Man Winter is a tease. Tuesday was a beautiful day. We had blue skies and no wind. I went out dressed in layers expecting to be cold but it wasn’t too bad. According to the weather folks we never broke freezing but the lack of wind and the bright sun made it seem almost like a “day at the beach”.

I made sure to grab my camera as I headed out. I had a long list of errands and then had to go to our Foxboro Office for my annual review. Yes, it was my day off but the alternative was a drive to Somerville on Friday. After that I had to head to Stoughton (20+ miles away) to meet with my Tax Guy and get my taxes filed. Even so I was optimistic that I could squeeze in some quality time with the camera. My goal, some quality shots for the 365 challenge. So far the challenge has been to get any shots, forget about quality!

I hopped in the car and put it in reverse to back out of my parking space and it felt, well, weird. It felt like the emergency brake was on but it wasn’t. I finished backing out and tentatively tried going forward…same thing. Now I thought I knew the problem..must be a flat tire.

I pulled into the next slot over and got out to look. Sure enough, flat as a pancake! I grabbed my cell and called AAA then I called my auto repair shop and made arrangements to bring the tire in. Finally I texted my boss to let him know what happened. It was only 10:30 and my review wasn’t until 1 pm but who knows how long I’d have to wait for AAA and then at the shop for the tire repair. I felt like the Geico commercial.

Sometimes things just fall into place. AAA arrived pretty quickly and changed the tire for me. We couldn’t see any reason for the flat. Valve stem looked fine, no nails or visible punctures, guess it will be up to the repair shop to get to the bottom of it.

The shop I use is about 5 miles down the road from me so even with traffic I was there before noon. Since I’m a regular they know me and took my tire right in. The tires are fairly new so I expected a repair. But noooooo. Randy, the manager, called me in and showed me where the side wall was starting to leak. He said it looked like I may have scraped it on a pot hole or curb. Well I knew I hadn’t hit a curb but there are certainly enough pot holes this year. I hadn’t hit any straight on but maybe in trying to avoid one I might have clipped it just right on the side. There was no saving the tire. 🙁

I told him to put on a new one and get me on the road. He did it right away. Turned out I was only 10 minutes late for my review but after the review it was still back to Stoughton and then all the errands I didn’t get to do in the morning. Needless to say there was no quality photography time.

I got to see several hawks hunting by the highway and a possum waddling out of the woods toward the road but no chance for pictures.

I settled for another cat photo. You may have seen it.

It’s a play on the Dr. Seuss story of Green Eggs and Ham

“Would you eat them
in a box?
Would you eat them
with a fox?”

I offered ” Do you like it in a Box?”

One of these days I’ll get to the fields and sanctuaries where I love to take pictures. Until then, Would you like it with a fox? 🙂

Kitty Destruction Continues

Posted on December 16, 2013December 16, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Snow, Snow, Snow! We’re heading into the home stretch for the shopping rush. Yup. Only one more weekend to get out and spend, spend , spend and that snow storm the Northeast just had surely put a damper on things.

Down in southeastern Mass. we missed the bullet. Temps climbed overnight and the snow turned to rain. By Sunday morning it was mostly slush but now it’s going to freeze… ice skates anyone?

As I was poking through my boxes of Christmas (yes I said the terrible word, not the PC Holiday) ornaments I thought it was a shame not to use some more. For years I just had my little table top tree (when the cats would allow it) but now I have all these other ornaments from the years we decorated at the office.

So I thought why not set up the side board. I packed up all my everyday things and spread the fake snow blanket. Oh I had everything from Santa on a boat to snowmen to Christmas Trees. No rhyme or reason to it, just using “stuff”. When it was done it wasn’t too bad. Maybe next year I’ll organize a village. But the best part… the cats were paying no attention! No helping paws!

For about a week the only thing I had to protect was the tree and we all know now how that went.

I’m not quite sure when the Kitty tornado blew through my tranquil holiday collage. I didn’t turn the lights on every night but I did look at it fairly regularly. But today I noticed it looked like a major storm blew in. Trees down, Santa knocked over, even the snowmen and Christmas mouse were flattened.

I just finished setting things back up and heard a “Bump”. I think I know the culprit now.

Rocky you’re off the hook on this one. Looks like Buddy gets to take the blame.

A Terrible Thing to Waste

Posted on August 17, 2013August 17, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Seems to me there was a phrase about college…something about “a Mind is a terrible thing to waste”.

Well lately I’d just like to have the “mind”. Seems like mine has turned to mush!

Don’t know why or even really when but it just doesn’t want to work. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I’m hoping the brain fog will clear soon so when I share my thoughts here they will ,once again, make some sense . 🙂

“I’ve Fallen and I can’t Get up.”

Posted on September 24, 2012September 24, 2012 by Dusty Roads

I’m sure everyone remembers a few years ago ( I think it was around 2007), there was a “Lifeline” commercial that turned into a media event. The victim had Fallen and the tag line was “Help I’ve Fallen and can’t get up”. Soon enough there were T-Shirts and jokes galore all based on the phrase “I’ve Fallen and I can’t get up.”

I was as bad as the next person. I thought it was pretty funny too.

Well what is it they say about “pay back?” I am discovering that as I “mature” (my sister takes issue when I say “old”) the “klutz factor” has grown.

I was mopping the kitchen floor last week and everyone knows that floors are

but as I turned to leave the kitchen …”bam!” (not the Emeril kind). I was on my butt before I could even think about what was happening. Rocky came scampering over to see what “mom” was doing on the floor but all he managed to do was get in my way as I tried to get back up, first the hands slipping then the feet. Finally I hitched myself to the edge of the kitchen so I could get a grip on the carpet and not slide.

I must have looked pretty silly but thankfully there wasn’t anyone to watch me except the cats. Anyway, back on my feet my right hip hurt and my right knee started to swell almost immediately. By this time I’m feeling more stupid than injured. I continued on about my business figuring I was a little bruised but that I’d be fine the next day.

Well I’m here to tell you that even a bruise doesn’t heal like it used to before I became “mature”. As a matter of fact it’s been 4 days and I’m still limping. Sitting too long locks up the joints and I’ve noticed that trying to sit so my hip doesn’t hurt makes my back ache! I do not like these aches and pains, no I do not like them at all!

But I have been soldiering on and will soon be sharing more exploits in spite of walking with a “Shuffle” and enviously eyeing the “Hoverounds”.