July 13

It's no secret that I'm picky and have an eye for detail. I'm meticulous about many things, and I have a laser eye that homes in on errors, omissions, and the just plain stupid. Combined with my occasionally-blunt nature and strongly-held opinions, this makes some interactions with people less than productive.

Fortunately, my friends have learned to accept these traits about me, in the same vein that I've learned to shut up occasionally and not spout my instant appraisal of things if somebody's feelings may be hurt. It's a good combination.

Sometimes, though, being the bastard described above can have its benefits. My friend Julie is applying to graduate school, and she's enlisted me to help proofread and edit her written application materials. I made sure to ask first before I really ripped into her stuff, and even though it is well-written, I still managed a page and a half of handwritten notes before I put fingers to keyboard to write up my recommendations.

And for what it's worth, I was careful to preface my comments to her, so she wouldn't think I thought she'd written complete crap. :-)

194/365 -

July 12

Oh, pretty flowers, my constant summer fall-back option.

After yesterday's ambitious photo walk, today I didn't really feel like going out (except to put my poor sneakers on the clothesline to dry after getting caught in the cloudburst). When hunger overcame apathy, I grabbed my camera for a quick walk to Roslindale Square and a stop at the fabulously cheap-and-cheerful Wapo Taco. It was closed.

Turns out, the highlight of my walk was right at the beginning. I stopped and got photos of these marvelously blue-purple flowers on my neighbor Nicolene's porch -- perhaps 150 feet from my own front door. They have a sort of wild exuberance that helped cheer me up.

I wish I could grow plants. Except for tomatoes, which are known to thrive under benign neglect, I've never grown anything substantive. Maybe someday, when I have a yard, I'll try again.

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July 11

Periodically in Boston -- every ten years or so -- we're visited by a flotilla of tall ships.

Being a Sailor, I'm always drawn to these events. Many people assume that any sailing ship is a tall ship, so all the sailing ships in the harbor generate quite a bit of buzz. To be considered a true tall ship, the vessel has to have traditional rigging, usually has square sails, and is a fairly large ship. In this case, there were several tall ships among the myriad smaller sailboats.

The ship in the foreground is the Portuguese sailing ship Sagres. Their ship was definitely the best lit tonight. I may try to make it back tomorrow for a tour, but if I don't, I'll feel better knowing I got to see them.

192/365 -

July 10

Most taxicabs in Boston are white Crown Victorias, so you have to give these guys points for originality on a couple of choices.

They call these things rickshaws, though I always thought a rickshaw was carried through the streets, not pedaled through the streets. As a lazy pedant, however, the distinction is only enough to bug me a little.

Their other original choice is that they don't have set charges. They only request you "pay what you please," which strikes me as an utterly ridiculous way of handling things. Sure, most of the pedicabs have advertising on them, but unless the advertisers are paying more money than I would, charging for their services wouldn't seem unreasonable.

Then again, I was a liberal arts major and never was very good at math, so there you go.

191/365 -

July 09

Today's Photo of the Day was selected with the advice and sage counsel of my friend and doorman, Ennio.

Some days, it's easy to get a great photo. Other days, you kind of have to pick from the best of a mediocre lot, perhaps photoshop it a bit for an artsy-fartsy effect and hope your readership (all five of you) will give you a pass. When you get a day sort of in the middle, with three possibilities, all dodgy, you have to call in your arbiter of taste -- in my case, that's Ennio.

Ennio thought the fuzzy, through-the-windshield shot of the man with the questionable fashion choices was "too weird." He found the photo of the statue of Athena atop the Cambridge Athenæum "unmoving." So it fell to the DUKW --pronounced "duck" -- to carry the day.

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July 08

The word "FAIL" has become a catchphrase among young people. It's a fair and accurate -- and brief -- descriptive word; it's sort of the "NOT!" of the new generation. There's even a blog dedicated to it. So when I saw it on a parking meter, the bane of my existence as a street parker in an urban area, I couldn't help but think how appropriate it seemed.

My life sometimes feels like a big fat "FAIL", but I keep plugging along. What was a leisurely job search, a "what-if" exercise in the current perilous economic climate, may be taking on a new urgency soon. Keep your fingers crossed and let's hope this one is FTW (For The Win), as the kids say.

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July 07

So far today, I've had a trash pickup, handheld a mover through the processing of scheduling a move, had dinner with a lady friend (where a cute tattooed restaurant manager flirted with both of us), then watched her devour a pound-sized milk chocolate bar. You'd think I would have an utterly fascinating Photo of the Day today from these adventures.

You would be wrong.

On the plus side, that Bagster that we filled over the weekend was picked up today, in the pouring rain, and taken away. It was pretty nifty watching the crane unfold from the truck and lift the big ol' green bag out of the driveway and making it disappear. And really, it put me in a better mood for the rest of the evening.

Not utterly fascinating, but still relevant -- which is more than I can say for my life. :-)

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July 06

This is a Bagster. It is an eight foot by four foot by 2.5 foot container designed for refuse. Basically, with a few exceptions, if you can fit it in there, the Bagster people will take it away.

Boyfriend and I spent the entire weekend cleaning and decluttering. While our goal wasn't explicitly to fill the Bagster, it was nice not having to worry about how much stuff we carried out. As you can see, we did fill the thing -- starting off with the 80s-styled dresser that was my first furniture purchase on my own. Beating it to bits with a hammer was spectacularly cathartic.

We made a dent in the household clutter and will hopefully make more progress now that we have some momentum. Meanwhile, I'm pretty proud that we've let go of so much crap.

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July 05

This is one unhappy kitty cat.

When my landladies go away for a weekend, I usually volunteer to take care of their critters -- Jasper the dog, Tico and Ulti the cats, and the fishes (thus far unnamed). Tico is accustomed to having his time outside every day, but when I'm in charge he has to stay indoors. It's not me being a bastard by keeping the cat in; it's more that I worry that he'll go out one day and get injured, or hit by a car, or perhaps worst of all, simply not come back. I'm not ready to be the person responsible for caring for the pet who mysteriously disappears -- particularly when I write the owner a check once a month for rent!

I caught Tico gazing balefully at me from the front window today, either longing to go outside or trying to make me feel guilty by hamming it up. Either way, I think it makes for a POTD that really tells a story.

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July 04

Happy Independence Day!

Boyfriend and I got our usual late start today, but we did shoehorn a full day's work into it. We positively filled our bagster, though we're still shoving stuff into the nooks and crannys. We got an excellent start by moving a large but beat-up dresser first; getting something large out of the way showed real progress right away. I also have to admit, busting down the drawers with a hammer to lay flat was quite cathartic.

Unfortunately, even with all our work, we're not nearly done with the cleaning and decluttering. Fortunately, we have tomorrow to try and finish up.

185/365 -

July 03

The lottery is often dismissed as a tax on people who can't do math.

I can't argue with that, really. I was a liberal arts major, so it turns out that I'm not that good at math. Still, I don't see the harm in purchasing the occasional scratch ticket, or powerball ticket, or even the odd raffle ticket. I'm certainly not gambling great amounts of money on stuff like this -- I can't afford to -- but it's nice to entertain notions about what Boyfriend and I would do if we were to win all that money. The powerball, by the way, is up to $113 million tonight.

$113 million. That's a lot of Dr Pepper ....

184/365 -

July 02

My dog died late last night. It seems most appropriate that it's raining cats and dogs today.

Pogo was unique. Dog lovers knows that every dog has a distinct personality, and Pogo was no exception. He was wickedly intelligent and had a strong will. Part border collie, part husky, genetics played a joke on him. He had the broad chest, thick fur with undercoat, and curly tail of a husky, but a tiny rear end, short legs, and face of a border collie. That didn't stop him from trying to herd Boyfriend and me to where he thought we should be. He was the runt of the litter when Boyfriend's parents picked him as a puppy, but in his youth he could leap snowbanks and, when excited, would simply jump up and down, over and over. My sister-in-law told me that was one of her first memories of Pogo, jumping continuously like that.

Pogo's health had been in decline for the past year. He had a tumor taken off of his belly last July. Last October, he became diabetic. Cataracts took most of his sight in February. Still, he ate heartily and was still adept at climbing the stairs and getting up onto the king-size bed with us to sleep. When he got very sick last night and couldn't keep his food down, Boyfriend took him to the animal hospital, where he declined quickly. I left work early to go there with him. We talked about it and agreed that it was time to let Pogo go.

He went quickly -- within 10 seconds -- after the injection.

The folks at Parkway Veterinary Hospital -- Dr. Segal, Dr. Higgins, Dr. Mekler, Sandie, Heather, Nancy, all of them -- are phenomenal caregivers, both for Pogo and Pretty Boy, our cat, and for Boyfriend and me, their two overanxious owners. And the emergency staff at the MSPCA's Angell Memorial -- especially Dr. Clark -- were kind, comforting, and thoroughly professional.

It seems absurd to eulogize a dog, but I've never been one to shy away from absurdity. I know that we made the right decision for Pogo, and we made it at the right time.

183/365 -

Today's Photo of the Day was taken on Christmas Day 2007.

July 01

If I had to come up with a title for this photo, I think it would have to be "Dueling Parking Tickets."

Seeing parking tickets in Boston's Back Bay is as common as seeing grass in a park. Parking Enforcement Officers (to call them "meter maids" seems both dimunitive of their jobs and pejorative) are tasked with enforcing the byzantine series of laws governing parking in the city. Traffic Rules and Regulations, the official City of Boston document governing parking, is 49 pages long. It's full of interesting information, such as Article IV, Section 17, Item 1a: "If the parking regulations at a particular location change due to time, then a second parking ticket may be issued after the expiration of ten (10) minutes from the time the first parking ticket was issued."

Seeing two tickets on one car, undoubtedly two perfectly legal tickets according to Traffic Rules and Regulations, is a bit more unusual. It's also noteworthy enough for a Photo of the Day on a rainy, slow Wednesday.

182/365 -

June 30

Everybody in Boston has been complaining about the weather this month. It's been cool, damp, and a little dreary, with 25 days of overcast skies this month. At first, people compared it to living in Seattle; now the globetrotters among us have begun comparing it to London. That's really unfair; London's forecast calls for sunshine and highs in the low 80s tomorrow, which is considerably better than Boston.

Surprisingly -- especially to me -- I haven't found the weather too unpleasant this month. Sure, I enjoy the sunshine as much as anybody, but the cooler weather is nice, and the payoff for all the rain is in the verdant green grass and flora we're having.

Besides, almost anything is better than this winter, and frankly, I'm already planning to bitch about the heat and humidity come summer. So, if I'm to be true to myself, I can't in good conscience bitch about this month's weather.

181/365 -

June 29

It's the start of a long week, one that will lead up to Independence Day on Saturday. We're doing a deep, deep housecleaning this weekend, something I'm looking very forward to. Planning something on this scale requires -- as almost any project I'm involved with -- lists.

The good news is that the lists are coming along fine. We're labeling stuff to donate and the rest will be thrown out. My intention is to fill our bagster to the brim, leaving our house emptier and hopefully, more habitable.

I'm looking very forward to this project. It's going to feel awfully good to get things in order!

180/365 -

June 28

This is a bagster.

Boyfriend and I, when we moved in together, brought two households worth of stuff into one household. Then we added stuff. Clutter, as it is wont to do, has accumulated and multiplied and otherwise overwhelmed us in our own home.

Next weekend, while we're both off, Boyfriend and I are cleaning house. I think I said it best earlier when I told a friend that we're "getting rid of shit." That which we can't give away or donate will be tossed into the bagster in the driveway, to be taken away by a big truck the following Monday.

Independence Day is taking on a whole new meaning in our house next weekend.

179/365 -

June 27

Today's photo walk took us outside the city limits -- to fabulous Newport, Rhode Island.

In the finest tradition of my photo walks, I had no clue where we were going to end up, other than somewhere outside of Boston, until late in the process (last night). My original plans were to go to Fall River and Battleship Cove, but those plans were tabled when the idea to visit Newport popped into my head.

So today, in a whirlwind of planning, Anna, Keith, and I got in the car, stopped at a market en route, and put together an impromptu picnic. Anna brought some really lovely bamboo plates, a frisbee, etc., while I grabbed a blanket, a couple of throw pillows, and other assorted accessories. Keith mentioned knowing a pretty place to picnic right on the beach, so we went with his suggestion (gut instinct), and ended up spending most of our time at the rocky beach at Brenton Point.

We left Brenton Point Beach with two bags of rocks, one depleted camera battery, some remnants of picnic food, etc., and pooped. God what a great day!

178/365 -

June 26

My friend Anna wondered if this guy realized how stupid he really looks. I assume she means Beanie Boy, but Yellow Sunglasses looks kind of dopey, too.

Now that most of the colleges in Boston are out for the summer, I see fewer students. As you might guess, some students stand out more than others. If I had to guess, I'd say Beanie Boy and Yellow Sunglasses are musicians en route to Berklee College of Music. However, Longy and the Boston Conservatory are also nearby; both are possible refuges for our fugitives from taste above.

If they're not musicians, I'm nearly certain that they're art students. I mean, look at them.

While their purpose in life isn't just to provide visual entertainment, they're awfully good at it. And it makes my commutes more interesting, that's for sure.

177/365 -

June 25

For the past couple of weeks it's been cool and rainy in Boston. The appearance this afternoon of blue skies, even with muggy, humid weather, was a joy for the senses.

I've been doing good and not complaining about the weather. Honestly, I didn't mind the rain and the highs being in the 60s. I may possibly be alone in that, however, as everybody's favorite topic, the weather, has been laced with complaints about the gray days recently. One of my residents compared it to springtime in London. Offhand, it's not a bad comparison, and really, I liked living in London, too.

I think after the hell of last winter, I'm hesitant to complain too much about milder weather. I'm going to make every effort to enjoy the warmer weather and not complain about the heat and humidity. Well, not too much, at least. I'm sure Massachusetts will seem more hospitable after I spend a week in Daytona Beach in August.

176/365 -

June 24

Well, today was the teen photo workshop at the West Roxbury Branch Library. The setup was great -- I had the big room, a projector and screen to hook into my notebook computer, several sets of handouts, lots of seating and room to move around. I certainly had no complaints.

The only thing missing were the teenagers. It was disappointing.

On the other hand, it was probably good to stop and take all the time to put together this kind of workshop. It'll stand me in good stead when I give it again later in the year -- for adults this time. The arrangements are already in the works.

175/365 -

June 23

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You know your residents love you when they feed you.

One of my residents makes frequent trips to the UK and Europe in the course of running her consulting business. She is also a very kind and thoughtful person.

We were discussing our varied experiences in London one day and she mentioned she was going, and asked if I would like something. I honestly couldn't think of anything I wanted, but then remembered that Boyfriend loves fruit pastilles. She came back with several tubes -- a delightful surprise for Boyfriend!

Ever since then I get a couple of packs of candy with every trip. This trip, she threw in a pack of Smarties (candy-coated chocolate) and a couple of Kinder Eggs (not pictured; they were eaten before I took this shot).

I love candy, and it's so nice to get something special and unique!

174/365 -

June 22

It's been my week for technology accomplishments.

My old laptop died back in March, and has since been replaced. Fortunately, because of my somewhat-anal backup regimen, I didn't lose anything when the computer croaked (although it helped that it gave some warning before it went). Now, my 500Gb external hard drive -- my main backup -- is nearly full. I don't have $100 bucks to buy another replacement drive, so I've been sweating my backups.

I took the chance that my old laptop's failure hadn't damaged its hard disk drive and ponied up $13 for an external hard drive enclosure from Micro Center. After removing the hard drive from the laptop, I carefully put it away, picked up my enclosure, and headed to work, where I started the installation. Five short minutes later (there was a lot of small screws to screw and unscrew, or it wouldn't have taken that long), my hard drive was securely installed and working.

The hard drive is only 160Gb, but it's more portable than the other one. The space available will hold me until I'm able to buy another 500Gb drive (or perhaps go larger).

Meanwhile, I'm going to feel smug for days, having figured out this solution -- and implemented it -- all on my own.

173/365 -

June 21

I love it when things work out.

My friend Keith, the jeweler, hosed his Windows XP installation last week. I went over to help him, thinking it would be something simple and I could boot into Safe Mode, fix it, and look brilliant. No such luck. It just would not boot.

With time running short, I had to leave, but promised I would come by this weekend to help him back up his files. He was getting the restore disks from the friend who gave him the computer, but my concern was that he would lose his files (including his website) in the restore process. My plan was to take a Ubuntu Live CD disk over -- the operating system runs right off the CD instead of the hard drive -- and back up his files to an external hard drive for safekeeping. Keith, understandably, wanted to be able to check his e-mail. I held out a small hope that he'd be able to do that, but my understanding of Verizon DSL was that it might be problematic.

The Live CD worked, and remarkably, Keith was able to go online. This was a great solution to his problem -- he could check his e-mail, etc., until he was able to restore his Windows installation. At this point, I was completely prepared to declare victory and move on.

I decided Keith should have a demonstration how to use the Live CD, though. Keith is very intelligent, but he learns better by doing than by watching. So I sat him down and had him start the computer. Then I stopped him -- Windows had starting running CHKDSK. It hadn't done that before. As we watched, me in open-mouthed amazement, the login screen came up and the computer worked as before.

I couldn't take credit. I still don't know what was different about this particular boot cycle. Nonetheless, it worked.

So I'm considering this as my miracle CD, and I'll be making additional copies for future use.

172/365 -

June 20

It's a miracle I manage to get anything done sometimes.

My teen photography workshop is next Wednesday (June 24), and I was beginning to feel the panic because I haven't completed either the handouts to go with the class or the presentation I have to give. My friend Anna agreed to meet with me for a late lunch today, followed by helping me put together my talk and critiquing it. God bless Anna for sitting there and listening to me talk for two hours, mostly uninterrupted.

After finishing the presentation, we meandered about a bit on a photo walk. This shot was the shot that wasn't yesterday -- I lined up my image and my camera battery died. Tonight's capture worked perfectly, though, producing the above image of the John W. Weeks footbridge over the Charles River near Harvard.

I love it when things work out.

170/365 -

June 19

It's been a rainy spring in Boston. With summer officially arriving in a couple of days, I feel justified in continuing to call the season spring -- with plenty of rain and cool temperatures.

Many of my residents are complaining about the weather, but I'm doing my level best to skip it. I'll probably bitch, piss, and moan about the heat once it arrives, but until then I'm trying to simply enjoy the cool wet weather.

It had been threatening to rain all day, but we'd gotten through with only a couple of small showers and a persistent mist. Then all hell broke loose around 4:50 pm -- fortunately, after I'd gone and moved my car. The heavens opened up, dropping all this rain in about 20 minutes.

It was impressive to watch, though I'm glad I missed having to be in the rain itself.

170/365 -