The Plentiful Vintage

So, long time, no write...

( The mid-year state of me... )

Had a record number of trick or treaters last night, forty-two of them. The cutest was a little guy (who may have been last year's littlest pumpkin), who said "Trick or treat!" and then turned around to leave without getting his treat. Luckily his mom was there to point out his error of technique, so he did eventually get his fun-sized Crunch bar. I'm sure he'll eventually get the hang of it. The best costume was a pre-teen asian girl in (what looked to be) a silk, traditional Japanese pattern gown. Very pretty. There was also a kid who dressed up as a slab of bacon.

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No volleyball tonight because the schools in South Kingstown (and the rest of South County, for that matter) are still closed due to lack of power in many of them, one of them being Peace Dale Elementary, where we play. I didn't play last week, either, because I had a bad cold. Still coughing a little, but otherwise am fine.

Volleyball again tonight and I don't seem to be nearly as sore as last week. Mind you, I'm still pretty sore, but there seems to be some progress convincing the ol' muscles to be a little more pliable. It helped that the team I was on consisted of just one old man (me)and five twenty-something athletes with lots of energy. Makes things a lot easier. I was also playing better than last week, so all in all a good night. OTOH, despite losing some sixty pounds since my last stint of playing, I still can't jump worth a damn. Sigh. We'll see how stiff I am in the morning.

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Got home in time to watch Elementary expecting to dislike it, but I didn't. I'm not sure having Watson become more of an investigator is a good idea, but it beats Nigel Bruce. I will keep watching for now.

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Have gotten hooked big time on Longmire which I had never even heard of until it popped up in an IMDb "People who liked this also liked..." box. Good cast (Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips, Initiative Graham from Buffy, and one of the bad guys from The Matrix as the title character). They even had Peter Weller as a guest star.

My legs are sore, my back aches, and my right index finger hurts when I move it. Yes, I've been playing volleyball.

Have had a couple of busy weekends in a row, with one more to come (Readercon). Youngest sister visited with her kids two weekends ago, so we did all sorts of stuff. Spent a day over in Newport gawking at the rich folks and their cottages. Spent another day on Block Island (aka, the Block Island Death March) walking hither and yon in the heat and humidity, since we didn't have bikes for the younger kids*. Still, a good time was had by most all, except for younger nephew who was being quite the pill and is fortunate the rest of us decided not to reenact the massacre at Mohegan Bluffs. The next day was a combination pool/volleyball party where the kids swam and I played volleyball for the first time in a year. I also introduced them all to Pratchett via the adaptation of Hogfather, and teenaged nephew left for home with the loan of several books.

* My suggestion that we let the adults and teenager ride whilst the little kids walked was met with disapproval, alas.

This past weekend had another pool/volleyball party, and I played a lot, which is why I ache all over. Still, it's a good ache, and I'm contemplating going back and playing again with the group at the Guild come September. I'd quit after I had my bike accident in 2004, which was followed by back troubles, and general problems with being old and fat. But I've lost considerable weight, and I've been considering going back. I hadn't yet because I was wondering if I could still play up to the competition at my age, but I was able to keep up without embarrassing myself the past two weekends, so maybe. I doubt I could do it every week like I used to, but it'd be fun.

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July 4th is my annual marker for trimming back the shrubs, and I started working on that. The problem has always been the size of the shrubs in front of the house. They're huge, because the previous owner wasn't diligent about keeping them trimmed back, and they're a pain to keep in check. I don't mind so much with the rhododendrons, because they are gorgeous in the spring, but the arbor vitae and, especially, the junipers (I'm mildly allergic) drive me crazy.

So anyway, I was out there trimming away, and I finally decided to do something about it. Went into the basement, found the chainsaw, and cut down juniper #1. Then I spent the next couple of days hacking away at all the intertwined branches with my loppers to separate them all into manageable bits so's that I could dispose of them all. I was worried that the side of the rhododendron would appear bare now that it's neighbor is gone, but it's not too bad, and will undoubtedly grow in now that it has more access to its environs. Juniper #2 meets its fate this week, and then I'll make a decision about the arbor vitae. Then I'll need to replace them with something. I'm thinking azaleas.