Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

One of the early voting locations in Boston is this weekend at the main library. I wanted to vote early rather than absentee, in part to get an "I voted" sticker. When I checked in to vote, the clerk noticed that they'd sent me an absentee ballot, which she said I should shred when it arrived. I asked for a chair, because the little tables people were supposed to use to fill in the ballots are at a bad height for me to use standing up.

I then returned a library book, and walked over to Newbury Street, because there's a branch of JP Licks near the library, and I wanted to try the caramel apple ice cream.

When I looked at the board, it said they had caramel apple, a couple of other flavors they announced this month, and cucumber. I asked for a sample of the caramel apple, and asked the guy behind the counter "does that say cucumber?" because that's usually a summer flavor. He thought I meant "is cucumber really an ice cream flavor?" so I explained that I know I like it, and asked for two pints, which I brought home.

The caramel apple ice cream is also good, and I bought a cup of that to eat right away,

I am very pleased with my timing, which was pure luck: I don't go to that branch of JP Licks very often, because it's down a flight of stairs, but my joints were (and are) feeling OK.

I went to the German consulate this morning to pick up my passport. I'd had it sent there rather than trust the post office, and then somehow overlooked the email saying it had arrived. I checked last week and learned they had it, then didn't get up early enough on Friday to be sure of getting there before noon, so went over there this morning. I only had to wait a few minutes, I think because I wasn't going to need much of the secretary's time: she asked my name, then compared my face to the passport photo, and handed me the passport.

On my way home, I went to the JP Licks in Coolidge Corner to get my free birthday ice cream. Sweet cream is one of the flavors of the month, which made me happy. I got a cone rather than a cup, so I could eat ice cream while walking back to the green line stop. I realized partway home that I'd been walking more quickly than usual, with fewer pauses, for most of this outing. It wasn't deliberate, but was probably useful exercise.

I'd put in a maintenance request with building management yesterday, asking them to turn the heat up, since it's been chilly much of the time since they replaced the boiler. A maintenance person showed up while I was home alone, so I got to be the one to walk around the apartment while he pointed a "heat wand" at various places in the apartment, and got readings mostly around 72-74 (F, which is around 23 C). He told me he'd turned the thermostat up a degree, but those numbers mean the apartment is warmer than the legal minimum (68 F during the day, 64 at night).

( covid masking )

When Adrian asked me for help baking less than an hour later, I said yes, and then the thing she'd asked me to do seemed suddenly complicated. I told her that, and she got Cattitude to do it the thing instead, but I was surprised and a little dismayed to be out of focus that early in the day. Adrian pointed out that I'd gotten up early to go downtown (the German consulate is across the street from the Back Bay train station), but I think the unexpected dealing with the maintenance person had a lot to do with it. The consulate, supermarket, and ice cream shop also involved dealing with people, but I expected and planned those.

I stayed indoors all day yesterday, for no particular reason, and then at about 8:00 I checked the forecast for Friday-Sunday. Friday (today) in particular was forecast to be hot, so I got cattitude and adrian_turtle to go for a short walk with me after dinner.

I woke up a bit early this morning, and instead of trying to get back to sleep, I got up and had tea, and sat for a little bit until I was awake enough to be hungry for breakfast. I had yogurt, pulled on clothes, and walked over to the nearby Whole Foods. (The Star Market opens earlier, but is a bit further away.) I got a few useful things, including more non-dairy ice cream sandwiches, because I (mistakenly) thought we had none left.

Those ice cream sandwiches are for Adrian and Cattitude. I'm happily eating (dairy) ice cream, and currently have peach, ginger, black raspberry, chocolate, and chocolate orgy. That is a lot of flavors, but I'm buying pints of ice cream if I'm near Lizzy's, or sometimes Tosci's or JP Licks, and expect to be able to get the ice cream home before it melts. Insulated shopping bags definitely help.

A couple of hours ago, I got a hot fudge sundae which wasn't the flavor of ice cream I'd ordered, but which I enjoyed. I'd said "strawberry" while the other customer was on his cell phone asking someone whether they wanted "some kind of cherry," and the clerk apparently thought I'd said "black cherry." The two flavors aren't that different in color, and I was distracted by telling him that I know it comes with three toppings, but I only want the hot fudge and whipped cream, so I didn't realize the mistake until I'd taken a spoonful.

It was warm enough to sit outside, and a random Tuesday afternoon, so the table outside Lizzy's was available; otherwise, I would have just gotten pints of ice cream to take home, which was the main reason I was there.

Because it feels like the days are slipping away again, as I prudently stay home:

I gave my too-large winter coat away, to someone who I hope it will be useful to. They picked it up from my porch, so I could minimize contact.

A Washington Post article on ( masking )

I ordered an ice cream delivery from Rancatore's yesterday, and that's now in my freezer. So, I have several flavors of good ice cream in my freezer, again, and I won't be tempted to make a trip to the Lizzy's store in Harvard Square, possibly by bus. I don't like having to avoid mass transit, but given my health and the current covid numbers, a possibly crowded right now.

I spent last night at adrian_turtle's, the first time I'd been there in over a month, because of this damned cough, and because she was also sick in early June. We both had a good time, but I was coughing a lot last night and didn't sleep well. I coughed enough to wake myself up at 4 a.m., so I got out of bed and used the albuterol inhaler.

It was cool enough today that I stopped at Lizzy's on the way home and bought two pints of ice cream--but warm enough that I also bought a small dish of chocolate ice cream and ate it sitting outside the shop.

Or at least lots of travel in order to run those errands:

After spending last night with adrian_turtle, I took a bus from her place to Trader Joe's. I wasn't planning to buy vegetables, but the produce section is just inside the door, and they had asparagus. $1.99/bunch is a good price, even in season, so I bought two bundles of asparagus, which is more than enough for two people. Or it's enough to be most of if a dinner, if the two people are us. cattitude made a very nice sauce for the asparagus; we ate lots of asparagus, and then a little bit of ham to fill in the corners.

I also found most of what was on the TJ's part of my shopping list: dried cherries, frozen fish, and "anything else that looks good in the freezer aisle," which turned into latkes, at Adrian's suggestion. Since we're stocking up a little, I got two kinds of dried cherries instead of one, and three packages of fish: two packages of sockeye salmon fillets and one of tuna steaks.

I noticed a couple of smudges on my glasses while I was out, but neither lens cloths and the lens-cleaning spray the optician gave me, nor soap and hot water, got them off. So I went back to Arlington Center, hoping Ron (the optician) could fix it, but prepared to ask about replacing just one lens.

I don't know what Ron did, but it worked. He took my glasses to the back of the shop. When he came back out, he handed them to me with a cheerful "Abracadabra." They were as good as new, and I thanked him and left.

Since there was still plenty of room in the freezer, I stopped at Lizzy's in Harvard Square and got two containers of ice cream.

That was all useful and a good use of energy and attention, but by the time I got home the second time I was worn out enough to not to do PT exercises. But tomorrow is another day.

We went to the farmers market in Central Square yesterday. The season for Vanessa grapes is over, much later than I'd expected, so I bought a quart of Marquis grapes to try, and two Roxbury russet apples for the same reason. We also came home with beets, an acorn squash, a few little Diva cucumbers, and butternut squash ravioli. (Two of the cucumbers were part of last night's dinner.)

Then we went to Toscanini's for ice cream. The list of flavors included sour cream, which seemed odd, but I figured it was worth asking for a taste. I tried it and said something like "mmm" while considering the taste. The server said I seemed uncertain, and I said that the uncertainty was whether to get just sour cream, or some of that and some raspberry. Also that I was mentally comparing it with the sweet cream flavor.

The sour cream ice cream, like the sweet cream, is very simple; it's tangier, but not as sour as lemon. I got a hot fudge sundae with half sour cream and half raspberry, then indulged myself further and got a pint of each to bring home with me. (A pint for take-out costs slightly more than a small hot fudge sundae, and is of course significantly more ice cream; it's getting two and a sundae that feels self-indulgent.

When I was paying for the ice cream, the cashier looked at my t-shirt, one of the series of prints Freddie Baer did for the Tiptree Award, and asked what it was for. So I gave her name, and a very brief explanation of the Tiptree. He asked if he could write that down, because he's a visual artist and likes science fiction. I happily spelled Freddie's name and gave him tiptree.org for information about the award. I have several of those shirts, and mostly think of them in terms of having cool illustrations, rather than remembering that they promote the award as well as raising funds for it.

When we got home, cattitude and I did some more unpacking, of a box that he thinks we'd meant to send to the storage unit. Along with more hangers than we're ever going to use, there were four pairs of shoes, three of which are going to the charity shop because they don't fit; a t-shirt I hadn't worn in years because I thought it didn't fit (and maybe for a while it didn't); and some random socks and such that I threw away because I wasn't going to wear them. That box was stacked on top of another larger one that says it also contains clothes; if we unpack that, we'll have cleared a significant amount of bedroom floor space and be able to get at another bookcase.

Today I took the bus out to Burlington, to the LL Bean store there. I wanted a new winter coat, and I wanted to try things on for size, and see how many pockets they had. That was a very successful trip: I got a long coat, two flannel shirts, and a pair of jeans. (Some of their men's jeans fit me as well as any women's pants I've found, and they're made of heavier denim and have better pockets.)

cattitude ran into 42itous yesterday, and she invited us over to try some of the lavender ice cream that she had made with flowers from our garden. It was good: I started with a very small serving, in case I didn't like it, and then asked for some more because I did.

We went there this afternoon. The ice cream was good, and we talk and played board games (ones that her three-year-old could play, with a little help, though she got bored before the end of both). We played one game each of Blokus and Ingenious; they both involve placing colored game pieces on a board, but the rules and strategy are different (I think, I don't really have a good feel for the strategy of either).