Summer Travel Map

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

June 1, 2011
Broad Brook, CT

Yes, things are getting back to normal. Geri's finished her meds and is definitely on the mend. Not 100% yet, but that'll take some additional time. We've been taking it easy, running a few errands, getting some routine maintenance done on the Rover (belts and spark plugs), and generally hanging out. By next week, we should be back in the swing of things.

On Friday, most of us (except Geri, for obvious reasons) went to the services for Paul's father, followed by what we dubbed "Gordiefest" in the afternoon, a catered affair at the Rockville American Legion Hall where family and friends gathered to celebrate his life and maybe hoist one or two. It all worked out very well.

Saturday, Pat and Geri made Lobster Mac and Cheese; Mike and Lynne had brought some leftovers from a party, and Al and I picked the meat; the ladies did the rest. That's some good stuff, right there. Sunday, we did some barbeque, grilling some chicken and a couple of tri-tips that Geri and I had brought. OK, so this was Costco tri-tip, not authentic Santa Maria Style done over red oak, but it was tasty all the same. Monday being Memorial Day, it was time for the annual pilgrimage to the Elks in Westbrook, CT, right on the beach. Geri and I stayed home since she wasn't up to the exertion just yet. We can tell she's better, though, by the increase in appetite.

Yesterday, I got a call from American Express that they had some suspicious charges on my account. Since this sometimes happens where we are traveling, with charges in multiple states, I figured it was a false alarm. Well, think again, bucko. They had $370 for Eurostar (train tickets), $300+ for some German Internet service and, oddly enough, $1.97 at a paintball shop in Houston. So, somebody snagged my card info, either with a hack or a skimmer at a business. I'll never know, of course. But, it's been fun to spend most of this afternoon updating various businesses where things are automatically charged. Complicated by the fact that my Outlook contacts are a bit messed up since I synced with my new phone. It never ends sometimes...

The weather's been quite a mixed bag since we've been here, with over a week of cloudy and sometimes rainy weather initially, followed by some nice days, then some severe thunderstorms on Memorial Day morning, and now hot and humid for the past couple of days. Weather Underground showed a line of storms early today that missed us and headed out to Cape Cod, and now most of western Massachusetts (we're only a few miles from the CT-MA border) is lit up with strong storms. There's a tornado warning until 8:00 PM, but the radar doesn't show anything heading our way, so I think (fingers crossed) we've dodged another one.

The good news is that we're supposed to have a couple of nicer, cooler days coming up. I'm not sure that'll do anything to reduce the mosquito population, which has been driving us inside morning and night. We don't have "bug jackets" here like Dave and Sandy in Ontario, but we probably could use them. We'll tough it out, though!