Our Big Dig Path to Logan Airport

I attended a family wedding today in the North End of Boston. It was a fabulous reception – held at The Living Room, a great nightspot/eatery which graciously closed for the reception for the entire afternoon. We all had a wonderful time, great food and again – wonderful entertainment from the younger set who were all entranced by each other and the little bottles of bubbles that occupied them (that and cake) for most of the afternoon. Watching them snuggle up against each other and my father (Grandpa) was worth the price of admission. . . ..Not to mention the photo I took of my father leaning on his umbrella like a cane and wearing my stepmothers hat. I won’t show that photo – I’m not sure he’d approve.

My father married the couple (something you can do in Massachusetts even if you are not in the clergy or a notary. It’s a one day thing and he’s pretty good at it (He used to be a college president which means he is well versed in officiating at official events).

Which brings me to the adventures .

My sister (the one who lights up a room by just walking in) and who has more love and hugs packed into her thin and gorgeous frame than you would think could possibly fit (I’m jealous here), is a flight attendant (which is actually pertinent to the story). The reception lasted until 6. There were two flights she could take back to LA – 6:15 and 7:15. She thought the 7:15 was the better bet. Since I don’t see her often I offered to drive. Quality time.

My brother assured me that she could catch a flight that was already in the air. Ok. We left the North End at about 6:50. What do you think our chances were?

She had luggage and her daughter Erin (who informed me that today she is 9 and 3/4) Exactly. Going on double digits at that age is a big deal. Me, I’d rather rewind – I’m past the age where you want to fast forward.

I should have known we’d encounter trouble when we couldn’t even find our way out of the parking lot easily (most obvious exits were blocked).

Those of you who live near, or are familiar with Boston know that there has been construction going on for a few years (We call it The Big Dig). Getting to the airport has been the biggest casualty (Everyone will tell you this.)

Here is how it works. Every couple of months or so the route to the airport changes because of construction. They put up signs to show you the new route which is all well and good. Here is the difficult part. They don’t take the old signs down. I suspect at this point that anywhere in the city you can find a sign leading to the airport. Most of them lead to places like old warehouses and the waterfront and a few even lead to 93 south (which is great if you actually want to go to Cape Cod.)

Here is a reasonable chart of our itinerary:

Those of you who have read Big Truck Slalom know how I drive so all this loop-di-loop was done at fairly high speed and with terrifying lane crossovers (I know there was a 5 lane cross at one point).

I’m sure my sister will never drive with me again but if you look closely at my diagram I hope you will be impressed that we made the airport at 7:22. Late for the 7:15 flight but what were our chances really?

But officially – this is a request for the city of Boston to take the old signs down. Or is that just a sneaky way to force us all to take the full city tour?

Balance and Bliss, The Geek Becomes a Member of Her Small Rural Town

I have been trying to lose weight now (you know, the weight you put on sitting in a chair in front of a computer for most of your waking hours -the rest of which are spent in a car). My main form of exercise from January through May was walking upstairs to bed at night. One flight of stairs does not equal any exercise machine out there. My daughter The Exercise Physiologist will be sure to tell you this.

That was my exercise plan. Such as it was.

So when I decided I needed to lose weight – a new concept for me, I turned to calorie-count.com. Its been great (8 pounds so far. I love that graph). By the way, this was mostly achieved by a new, daily, two mile walk (It’s not all about the intake). One mile to, one mile fro. I’ve been doing this for at least two months.

I met my husband on Match.com (yes it’s true. – we actually met face to face before that but thats dissembling).

I use Linkedin.com for networking, IM and email for conversation. I don’t send printed photos to my family (usually) I send them links to flickr. They don’t look or respond. I’m too ahead of the family curve. Not their fault.

If I am looking for work (or employees) I use monster.com or craigslist.com. If I want to sell something – I don’t have a tag sale or put an ad in the local paper I put it on ebay or craigslist.

As my career is in Interactive Media I generally prefer online business directories and Google ads to printed ones.

Most of my television is downloaded through itunes (allows for multitasking). Most of my books are through audible.com (I’m addicted).

That said.

I have found balance in the Historic District Commission and the Historic Commission in my town as I love historic buildings and history. There is nothing like the shapes, moldings and built quality of old buildings. There is nothing more satisfying than a street or preferably streets in your town historically preserved.

And your HP printer will never achieve the results of an old fashioned letterpress (btw).

I have found balance in my garden among the flowers, shrubs, vegetables and birds.

I have found balance in my kayak.

There is balance, now, in venturing daily to the small town post office to check for business mail, in dealing with the local bank, the local library, in meeting people in the local coffee shop. This after years of daily commuting, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, anything quick that would send me on my way.

So one foot in web 2.0 and one foot in small town America. Balance and bliss.

How Did You Celebrate Your 50th Birthday?

I have spent a reasonable portion of my day working in my home office (semester deadlines and final projects approaching . . . and I am working on a real-honest-to-goodness proposal in response to an RFP for my fledgling business. (My excuse for not posting in days and days. . .)

Now all day long there has been honking outside as cars pass down the street. At first, in a basically self centered way, I assumed it was friends of ours passing by and saying hi (they do this from time to time and you never actually know which friend it was.

It wasn’t until I went out to interview a php developer and do a few errands that I realized that all the way up and down the street one of the neighbors husbands or children had posted balloons and signs saying (I will be paraphrasing but it will be close) 1) Get Ready, 2) You are almost there 3) Carol is 50! Honk!

It brought lots of honks which has been kind of cool. In the past I’ve only seen people honking at political signs. Surprise parties are the usual celebration (or drowning yourself in a bottle of wine) but the person that thought that up for Carol is probably a pretty cool person (guy).

Arm Yourself for Turning 50 – Part One. The Beauty Routine.

Warning – This is for the Womenfolk but men can learn from it too.

First – you have to understand this is not about turning back the clock. It is about making lemonade out of lemons.

And by the way BRAND your lemonade -make it great and you can turn the whole silly bus around.

Lets start with the basics (mostly for women). Men have a different set of rules and requirements.

Chapstick: You will need a lot of this. It takes a while to find the right brand. You want something that works quickly (and a test I don’t think the lip balm/chap stick folks perform is “overnight lasting power”). If you have a good one it won’t remind you that you put it on in the morning. (psst – best so far are Burts Bees, a bit of a residue but still ok, Trader Joes, and my favorite is (or was) made by Thymes. I checked their website today and they have either discontinued it or re-branded it as Gardeners Lip Balm. Stay tuned.

For a while I was so intrigued by the chapstick/lip balm thing that I tried to create my own. It worked well (I have a closet full of ingredients) but I still think there is a real market for a good over-night formula.

Body Lotion: Aveeno. I don’t care if you spend over a hundred dollars you won’t find a cream that works better.

Face Lotion. This is Wizard of Oz stuff. For a while I tried everything out there. Face creams, eye creams, moisturizing foundations (understand I have not been a big makeup wearer my whole life). It comes down to this. A really high SPF sunscreen that does it’s job and any garden variety face cream out there. And a hat. Truly. Lets not fool ourselves (but if someone wants to send me free samples of anything I am willing to give it a try). If I’m wrong I’ll tell you.

Find a hairdresser you like and trust. Mine is worth her weight in gold and if she knew how good I felt after leaving her chair would charge me a whole lot more (so lets keep this our secret).

The back of the neck problem: You know thats where the furnace resides. If you have longish hair you will want a barrette. Depending upon your day to day life you may want to practice the quick and unobtrusive up-do. Just whip the barrette out of your pocket and put your hair up (keeping it off your neck is key). You can do this at a business meeting – believe me. I’ve done it. Stock up on barrettes or cut your hair.

Update on Over 50 Geek Survival Tools

My fan finally came and it’s very cool. It did take a long time but as it was shipped from Hong Kong I would say that explains it. It took a while to get a response from usbgeek.com but everything has come out right in the end.

I do wish the fan would tilt up but it does have the on/off switch for sweep or straight on cooling. Works like a charm.

 

 

 

 

Better Living Through Electronics

I don’t know about your household – but in mine every problem has a solution. At least according to my husband who can find an electronic solution to every problem. If there isn’t a problem and it’s time for a new electronic device he will invent a problem to solve.

We have a TV in just about every room, video ipods and iphones and well you just don’t want to hear the whole inventory. And you don’t want to know how many flat screen TVs, outdoor speakers,  and newer bleeding edge phones we can go through in a calendar year either. It’s ok, his job is electronics so an argument can be made that he needs to do this to stay current. Personally I think this is what he does to solve the kinks in life that cause me to turn to my garden.

A good half day spent on set up and on the phone with tech support – for him it’s almost a sport.

I should not complain as I am often the recipient of a surprise electronic device.  Yesterday’s device meant he had to grab a big ladder and climb on the roof. A lot of sweat and a long conversation with tech support finally resulted in a much improved signal for my iphone.

Since it is now my primary business phone thats a big deal.

Why Don’t We Grow Crabgrass on Purpose?

This year I decided to go organic with my yard. I’ve always been more interested in the flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs than the grass but I have to admit the grass ties everything together and, besides, the rest of my family seems to like it a lot.

Now most grasses aren’t that thrilled with my sandy soil anyway so it takes a bit of work to make it grow at all. We finally realized that a mulching mower would not only save us work it would give nutrients back to the sad sandy soil. Knowing that the grass would need a bit of extra help for a while I spread bags and bags worth of pelleted chicken doo all over the lawn. I reasoned that if the grass were vigorous enough it would fight back against the crabgrass and weeds.

Well it is mid July now and the crabgrass has made its annual assault. We have enough of it that I looked out the door the other day and asked “Why don’t we just grow crabgrass on purpose?”, Well, Why don’t we?

The benefits:
You don’t have to plant it
You don’t have to feed it

What’s not to like.

The Stats Have Their Own Tale to Tell

If you write a blog or oversee a web site you understand Stats and you know that they give up interesting tidbits from time to time.

I especially like to see the words people use in their search string that eventually bring them to me. Imagine my surprise when I found “secret code to trick ATM” in my daily search stats.

Of course the post that brought them here was almost certainly Bad Bank, Bad Bad Bank, Monday Morning Adventures at the ATM.

I’m willing to bet that the person who caused all my trouble in the first place started by searching the web for “secret code to trick ATM”.

Grounding in Good Things

Yesterday a sizable chunk of family met for a potluck picnic in Vermont. Entertainment was provided by my niece and nephew, wonderful food was provided by all.

There were a number of highlights but I have to say one of my favorites was watching Erin and Tian (the very entertaining niece and nephew duo) feeding mint to the garden statue.

I’m pretty sure the statue enjoyed it too.

Delving From The Outside In

Without periodic intervention my garden begins to look shabby, the weeds and insects get out of control and after two weeks of inattention it becomes a bit overwhelming.

Over the past two weeks or so I’ve had my own weeds taking hold and small bits of disease eating away at places I didn’t notice. I came out of the job-loss-thing pretty quickly and am not one to sit around and stew – but a few days ago I started to notice signs.

I began to get angry and/or sad about the most mundane things, found myself not wanting to do much more than work on the new web site for my business or press reload on my send/receive email button. I decided food wasn’t terribly interesting but that Prilosec was quite a decent substitute. The more time that passed without keeping up with my classwork the scarier resuming it became.

But how could I do classwork or anything else when I had to:

start my own business
bring in clients
keep the clients I already had happy (or better yet happier).
note: this list is actually quite a bit larger than it appears but i have thoughtfully truncated it for you

Things for me had become as overwhelming as my garden.

I decided to clean up my life from the outside in. My garden is therapy after all. The work – this time of year – is hot and sweaty but the results are visible. The garden, the house, my family, my clients, my class work, my business. For a few days I will do things in that order instead, try to make order out of the disorderly chaos and try to strengthen the fragility in me that I never knew was there.

At least I had become pretty successful at stomping the dickens out of it.

Results of day one are above. I have decided one bed or source of pestilence at a time. This shows the new garden bed (which is still working to establish itself) and the established bed across the path (that needs thinning).

Next year.

note: I was re-reading this and it occurred to me that placing my family third might be misunderstood. This is simply emergency triage and will right itself in time.