Brain-Fried Friday

Yup, this is about how I feel today!  Utterly exhausted, upside down, deep-fried brain.  Drove into Boston late yesterday afternoon to deliver my grandbaby and her mom for a sleep study at Children's.  Traffic going INTO the city was unexpectedly and unbearably heavy!!  Decided to get a room near the hospital to make it easier.....the parking garage had to be a level in Dante's Inferno!!!  It was HOT, and dark and low.  The back door of my compact wagon could not go up completely as it was hampered by rubber coated pipes.  As I reached up to pull the door down, I expected to see rats running along the pipes.  The garage was also not very accommodating for a stroller, plenty of stair entrances to the hotel were marked but we had to wander around till we were back at the garage entrance to find a handicap accessible entrance. When we left this morning valet parking had double, triple parked in the garage so we had to wait for a valet to come move vehicles so we could leave!!!  The hotel only had one entrance that could accommodate a stroller and our room doorway was barely wide enough to fit the stroller through....on and on and on.  Needless to say, the Babymomma didn't get much sleep although the grandbaby did as she was stressed out beyond measure by a heartless technician who was determined to do his job and lost sight of the fact that he was working on a little human being and not a mannequin.  The Grandmother was a little undone being in a hotel room in the city by herself.  I kept turning on the light expecting to see bugs or mice escaping the bright light.  I was going to open my drapes to let the city lights in but my window opened onto a roof with a ladder coming over  from the next rooftop so that completely unsettled me, sending my imagination into overdrive and the curtains were left drawn tight.  We are finally home.  At least the ride out was easy, hitting all the green lights on route two!!

So, if you don't mind, I'm just going to flop down and nurse a cup of coffee.  If it were sunny out, I'd join this beast.

Sweeping Away the Cobwebs.....Or Not

For a week, I had been unsuccessfully reminding myself to sweep around the front door.  The cobwebs were out of control, catching debris and just not a welcoming sight.  It greeted me every morning as the front door is at the bottom of the staircase.  July 9th, this beautiful creature had taken up residence and I have left her undisturbed.  It has been amazing to watch.  During a ridiculously hot, humid stretch I thought she was a goner.  She had been moving every day - at night she would be on the yard side of her web, and during the day she would be on the house side.  This past weekend she stayed on one side and didn't move.  Her web had massive holes and was torn and hanging in lots of places.   A dry spell with cooler temperatures has moved in for a few days and yesterday her web was amazing.  It spans two panes of my three pane side lights next to the front door and her zipper is quite long and filled in.  Lighting hasn't been sufficient to get a good shot but perhaps I'll try later.  These two shots were taken the first day we met.  Sweeping the front door is going to wait till she has moved on.

July, So Far

My sights are so different this summer.  My flower gardens remain unweeded but watered, at least, thanks to my son-in-law.  I have not been down to check on life in the swamp for a month now, at least.  I have not hiked at all.

I did take my grandbaby out on a hot, sunny afternoon and enjoyed watching her experience sunglasses for the first time.  She cried and would not open her eyes.  So, we went back into the house and found Grammy's sunglasses and stood in front of the bathroom mirror.  She decided they were ok and so back outside we went.

Last summer, I had a summer reading list and enjoyed finding a diverse selection of books to devour.  This summer it's "Hippos Go Berserk" and "Moo Baa LaLaLa!"

June

An oasis in the midst of a very noisy and chaotic part of the city and a respite from the hum and whir and beeping alarms of a hospital room. The Prouty Garden at Children's Hospital Boston. The picture of the Blue Hydrangea above was taken out the window of the third floor family waiting area the day of surgery. A bleak and gray day, these were a treasure to see. Coming back from supper one night when the grandbaby was in ICU and sedated, we were so very surprised to find "Wally" when we pulled back her receiving blanket. The ICU nurse uses children's stuffies to snuggle their legs and keep their legs from sticking together. I don't remember when we discovered the garden, but it was a delight to eat lunch or supper in or just stroll through and find all the statues tucked in the hedges. Looking forward to sharing it with the grandbaby when she is old enough to discover some of it by herself.

Is it really July already?