It’s Possible to Find a Needle in a Hay Stack…I Have Proof!
I had a very full weekend, looking back. On Friday night I got together with Randy and he prepared a home-made pizza for dinner and then we watched Party Monster on DVD. Oh! And he DVR’d Ugly Betty which is freakin’ hilarious!
On Saturday, Randy and I went to the storage facility I’ve rented for the trust I manage and cleared it out. We sifted through the contents: some went to Goodwill, some (retro clothes) went to my closet, some went to the trust’s beneficiary and the rest went to the trash.
Randy was taken by two photo frames that were handmade in prison, presumably in the late 70’s or early 80’s. Essentially, pages of porn magazines were folded into little squares (exposing the appropriate anatomy and the occasional face) then woven together to create a patchwork of straight porn. Another frame was more elaborate and included rolled up pages of porn as piping along the perimeter. Later that evening, Randy presenting the frames to a friend who was mesmerized and quite thankful (despite being gay).
Anyway, on Saturday evening I got together with Randy and a bunch of his friends and played a card game called “Hands and Feet.” It’s officially surpassed Flinch as my new favorite card game.
On Sunday, I began my condo search. I met up with the broker late in the morning and finished 5 condos and 4 hours later. I saw two properties in Boston (tiny) and three in Cambridge. If I could take elements of the three in Cambridge and combine them, it’d be perfect. The largest one was in the most inconvenient location – but was quite spacious. The best one was also the smallest, but is in the most ideal location near two subway stops, on a tree-lined residential street and is brand-spanking new (in fact, the unit was still exposed concrete and studs since the walls aren’t up yet). The problem is that it’s on the ground level. Decisions, decisions.
Randy met up with me after my home-hunt and we went to Mount Auburn Cemetery. After taking photos and complaining about them all being over exposed, he gave me a quick camera lesson (I never knew my camera had all of these functions. Here’s some evidence of the improvement (the first being over-exposed and the second having decent detail).
Here are some other photos either taken by me or Randy:
Finally, on Monday I got together with a new friend, Dave, and went up to Newburyport for the day. It was much warmer than expected but we had a great lunch at an old (well, at least old-looking) pub named Rockfish. I got a delicious prosciutto di parma sandwich (prosciutto, vine-ripened tomato, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, chicken on french baguette). YUM.
On our way back to Boston, we decided to pop by Crane Beach. It’s funny, I’ve been there 5 times this summer…and 4 of them have been after Labor Day. And each time I say it’s going to be my last time for the season – but then the weather cooperates and I head back. Anyway, we never intended to go to the beach so we had no swimsuits and no towels (in fact, he was in jeans). We walked to the right quite far and sat down for a while and chatted. We walked back all the way to the parking lot when Dave realized the key had fallen out of his pocket somewhere along the beach.
UGH!
This beach is enormous…and between the time we arrived and the time we’d walked back to the car, a few hours had passed….and the tide had gone out. We went to the parking gate attendant and shared our drama. He offered to have the park ranger drive us out to where we sat…but we’d have to walk ourselves back to the parking area. It was now about 5:40PM and the sun sets/beach closes at 6:13PM (something the ranger made abundantly clear). We had about a half hour to search an entire beach for a key (that was on it’s own…no key ring…just a loose key).
Oh, and as we were waiting for the all-terrain vehicle to pick us up, Dave got stung by a bee. The poor guy. Anyway, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere and the ranger drove away. We searched for close to a half hour then gave up. I mean, finding a tiny lone key in miles of sandy beach is like finding a needle in a hay stack (as the park ranger told both of us a few times). I called the ranger to request help (tow truck, locksmith, anything). Once I closed my cell phone, Dave turned around, exasperated, and saw something shiny in the sand about 15 feet away (good thing the sun was setting at just the right angle). It was the key. Miracle of miracles, he found the key.
We canceled our distress call, walked the 30 minutes or so back to the car, and drove home – safe and sound.
He emailed me today to say that he fell right to sleep when he got home (which was about 7:30 or 7:45PM) and that his legs were killing from walking in the sand so much. But the bee sting pain went away, he found his key, and life goes on. And I got some great pictures of a cemetery in Newburyport and a fun one from Crane Beach (thanks to Randy’s mad photo-taking lessons):
(I think my shadow makes me look fat in that last one)
4 Comments
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Actually the scary thing is that about half of those old convict clothes were taken from my trash cans overnight by dumpster divers! I guess one mans junk is another mans treasure!
*Great* photos! 🙂 And I must throw a couple of “woofs” in your direction as well.
“Does the penumbra make my ass look too big?”
Sounds like a boffo weekend.
It’s certainly not undeserved, but your life sounds so idyllic at the moment–rich in friends, fun and posibilities into the future. Good for you!.