Author Archives: Sparky
Carnival Breeze – Days 1, 2 and 3
Jett and I are midway through a 9-day (8 night) Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Breeze, one of Carnival Cruise Line’s biggest and best ships. Our itinerary includes stops in Grand Turk (Turks and Caicos Islands), La Romana (Dominican Republic), Curacao and Aruba. After the winter we have had, we felt the need to get … Continue reading
Snowiest? Coldest? Why not both?
We have just put the month of February, 2015, into the record book here in Boston. And what a month it was! Yes, it was the snowiest month since meteorological record keeping began in 1891 – some 124 years ago. It obliterated the old record of 44.5 inches with a new total of 65.5 inches … Continue reading
Trolling for miles
My Visa account got hacked in early January. The hacker did the “can’t remember password” thing and managed to guess the answers to my (so-called) security questions, then changed my password. I was notified by email that my password had changed, but didn’t read the message until nearly a day after it happened. I immediately … Continue reading
So not Florida
Because the house did not sell in the fall, we committed to staying in Massachusetts for the winter, living in the house and working on a series of minor improvements and repairs. And one major upgrade: replacing the countertop with beautiful new quartz. We missed Florida. We missed the weather and we missed the camaraderie … Continue reading
A good time to travel
I just filled the truck’s tank: 26.5 gallons at $2.90/gallon. It would be a great time to be traveling. Which we aren’t of course. No, we were traveling when the price of diesel was hovering around $4.00/gallon. Just more bad timing on our part. We may be ruining the environment of North Dakota for future … Continue reading
Senior softball
Now that we have had our first snowfall of the winter (ah, Florida, how I miss you!), it might be a good time to reflect on my softball season. Yes, at age 65 I continue to play softball. Specifically, I play in an over-55 league organized by the EMASS Senior Softball organization. That organization has … Continue reading
Winterization, part 2
Well, we waited as long as we could. We were hoping against hope that the house would sell before the end of October and we could escape to Ft. Myers for the winter. Didn’t happen. So we are going to let the listing expire, enjoy(?) our (hopefully) last New England winter and re-list in the … Continue reading
Coming off the road
Sad, but true – we are out of the RV and back in our house in Medford, MA. We put the house up for sale in early September and agreed that if it didn’t sell by the end of October we would reside there over the winter (ugh!), fix the place up a bit and … Continue reading
Commuting – the lost opportunity
I have been commuting to work via commuter rail – 90 minutes each way – since we arrived back in Massachusetts in March. It is now the end of September and I am about to take my last ride and it now, belatedly, occurs to me that I have wasted those 3 hours each workday. … Continue reading
“You guys don’t do shit around here”
We have had a brutal winter here in New England. Record cold, record snow. I have spent countless hours shoveling the driveway and the sidewalks. And once, early in the winter, I shoveled the street in front of my house, to make room for someone – a guest or a neighbor – who might need … Continue reading »