<\/p>\n
In New England, the end of summer is akin to how it must have felt to the pyramid-building slaves when their break period was about to end.\u00a0 A wonderful but horribly short respite was giving way to endless unimaginable agony.\u00a0 And this cycle would repeat itself until merciful death interceded.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like that.<\/p>\n
Summer is breathtakingly beautiful because of the contrast to what follows.\u00a0 It was less than 40\u25e6<\/sup>F here this morning.\u00a0 On the second day of September.\u00a0 Still summer!\u00a0 And it goes rapidly downhill from here.\u00a0 Sure, we\u2019ll have some warm days.\u00a0 Over eighty sometimes.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just a cruel tease meant to highlight just how bad things will soon be.\u00a0 In the last decade or so New England has unleashed a new and terrifying alternative to winter storms.\u00a0 This is where a freezing rain or snow descends on us in October while the trees are still full of leaves.\u00a0 The trees in this condition hold onto much more snow and ice than normally and therefore huge branches and limbs can break off the trees.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how millions of people end up without power for days or even weeks.\u00a0 So, what you have is houses without heat, some without a stove, some without water, which means without toilets.\u00a0 It\u2019s such a joy.\u00a0 So, installing an emergency generator really isn\u2019t an extreme decision.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of mandatory if you want to eat and drink and stay warm and go to the bathroom and, you know, live.<\/p>\n So, why am I writing about this?\u00a0 Well mostly to let you people living in other parts of the country know how lucky you are.\u00a0 Sure, they have hurricanes down south and earthquakes in the west and tornadoes in between but those only very infrequently effect you.\u00a0 Here we know as sure as night follows day that we will be wet, miserable and cold for eight months of the year, every year until we die or we have the good sense to get the hell out of this purgatorial region.<\/p>\n And why don\u2019t I leave?\u00a0 Ah, I am bound with the strongest and most adamantine of chains, the grandmother\/grandchildren bond.\u00a0 If a woman is possessed of an industrial strength maternal instinct (as, sadly, Camera Girl is) then no power in the \u2018Verse short of a strategic thermonuclear strike will pry her away from these rugrats.<\/p>\n So here I am.\u00a0 The rollercoaster is at the top of the lift hill and the slow ratchet up is done.\u00a0 We\u2019re staring down but the bottom has not yet dropped out of our stomachs.\u00a0 Here we go.<\/p>\n End of depressing preamble.<\/p>\n So, I\u2019ve got this cool three-day weekend.\u00a0 Some relatives are coming up.\u00a0 I\u2019m going out to take some seasonal photos and I\u2019m bound to hang out with the grandsons too.\u00a0 Plus, the mystery of the disappearing quail needs to be answered.\u00a0 I\u2019ve put out a game camera and hope to catch some photos of them gamboling around in the woods and thickets.\u00a0 And finally, I\u2019m finishing up the available Cowboy Bebop discs from Netflix.\u00a0 I decided to try out another anime title (Ghost in the Shell 2.0) and it just arrived.\u00a0 All in all, it sounds like I\u2019ll be having a very good time.<\/p>\n A very happy and relaxing Labor Day Holiday to all you good folks out there reading OCF.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have more serious stuff right along soon but today just enjoy a good rest and do something fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In New England, the end of summer is akin to how it must have felt to the pyramid-building slaves when their break period was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[312,300,338,339,342,340,216,297,341],"class_list":["post-1436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-anime","tag-camera-girl","tag-labor-day","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-summer","tag-new-england-winter","tag-photog","tag-quail","tag-weather"],"yoast_head":"\n