We are now getting something hurricane-like, after several days of expectation. Thursday afternoon cumulous built impressively then the sky lowered and rain pounded for a while. That tasted, and even saltily smelled, like the storm but surely was no such thing.
Event cancellation began thursday. The kind of substantiating effort beforehand by the media makes the expectation worse than the event. Proportion is right out.
Beth had to work saturday, and Erin attended some back to school events at UMass, so Beth’s mother, who is visiting, and I were on our own. What else to do but take her to the mall. It has been a while since I’ve made a mall report.
The sky was overcast and somewhat unremarkable. I don’t really have a keen weather eye but I like to observe weather events. To the east and south, assuming I have my directions right, the clouds seemed to tell of something larger in the offing, grey rising above grey.
Before we reached the mall we went into a golf store, Golf Galaxy to be specific. As much as I’ve always been a sporty guy, both in participating and in watching, I am completely tuned out to golf. Beth’s mother is avid.
I might as well lay out my objections to golf. What are blogs for?
By temperament, golf’s not for me. In sports, I got by on energy, not skill. There’s no golfing harder than the other person. Further, I don’t like the trade of natural landscapes for enormous and exclusive lawns. And it is effing expensive to golf.
The Galaxy was spacious with, hey hey, green carpets. The whole gizmo aspect of golf gear puts me off, too, I should add. It is legitimately a science of the sport but it is not the part I would want to wraparound. I would just want to swing away. So now you know why you shouldn’t like golf.
Someone was getting a lesson, complete with video review. The golfer was a young athletic looking guy, very intent. He was a southpaw, which I think is rare. I mean, I believe lefties often swing right because it’s easier to procure righty clubs. Anyway, we toured the whole store but I did not end up wearing plaid pants
It just started raining as we reached the mall. Many people there, we parked in the back 40. We entered Nordstrom, to an insistent dance beat. Norma went to the shoes, where a lot of young women were ogling the styles. I don’t know why anyone would want to wear plastic sandals. Norma said all the jewelry was costume.
We didn’t go in but Betsey Johnson had a tv showing some older women—I’m guessing some withering celebs of some sort—sort of frolicking in a beaming way. I dunno.
Norma was directed into another boutique place by the yearning call of a red blouse, the purchase of which she resisted. The Walking Store had a lot of shoes I wouldn’t want to walk in.
Eddie Bauer we learned on entering was discounting their clearance items a further 40%. It was mostly pant I didn’t want but thanks for the offer. Mostly I just watched the tv there.
I have issues with height but it’s fascinating what rock climbers can do. I remember reading someone’s account of climbing El Capitan. It took 2 days, so there’s a bivouac, hanging from that wall. Yikes. Plus a vertiginous view up and down must take some getting used to.
Eddie Bauer has taken to promoting music, in this particular a group called The Left. Not to be harsh, but why them? They were so smoothly boring, quite the antithesis to the adrenalin drive of outdoor sportitude. Besides, the drummer sang, never a good thing.
Finalement a visit to a store selling memory foam furniture. An outsized bean bag chair filled with foam looked like something difficult to remove oneself from, so I didn’t try. I mean, aren’t bean bag chairs intended to make adults feel silly? The modular furniture seemed like a smart idea. There’s a sitting piece and an arm piece. The more you get, the more possibilities:chairs, sofas, beds. Woohoo.
As we left, it rained in earnest. A lovely garden rain, persistent but not heavy.
This morning around 5:00, Beth and I heard a noise outside then the power went out. I called the power company and was the first to report it. There were some outages in southern Mass but here it was neither blowing that hard or raining.
After a while I decided to go for a walk. Warmish and humid (it’s currently 98% humidity). Wind was strong but not unusual. The outage was very local.
I saw a couple of small flocks of starlings wheel in the air. It seemed like a tacking maneuver but then they dashed kinda straight into the wind, towards some trees. I also saw a lone turkey, a female. When it saw me it scurried across the street into the woods. It didn’t realize that I know that turkeys are scary and will eat me. I went towards the river but it started to rain harder and I was hungry so I curtailed my trek. Now 9:00 and not much has changed.
