The Memorial Day Weekend Highlights Thread

sitting in the back yard, 77 degrees, ballgame on the radio, nice breeze, burning zero fossil fuels. oops! laptop electricity, sorry!

 

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally a mix of work and fun - opening up the summer cottage and catching up with cousins and friends around the lake.

1. A fun drive, zipping along Rte 30 followed by a Sandy Beach Prius with a SR up to Manchester VT. There were a few slow pokes that I had to pass so mpg suffered, but it was worth it. I had a good chuckle noticing that the Nav screen went white for a portion of the ride and was just leaving a little set of tracks as we drove along. I guess it didn't have any info on that corner of VT.

2. Opening the cottage was secondary to cleaning up the damage from a storm that came through last Wed. We escaped major damage from a 100 ft pine tree that fell at my cousin's place next door, crushing their dock, and just missing a tree in our yard which would have fallen down onto our house like a domino. The tree came to rest with the top on our front steps. Many weren't so lucky, see the link to the Rutland Herald. The houses in the pictures are right around us. I may be feeling old, tired and sore from all the clean up work but I consider us very fortunate. As a bonus, Sat. was a beautiful day to be outside working (upper 70s).


Tornado-strength wind hammers west county: Rutland Herald Online

 

Jogged three miles on the treadmill; went to the gym and lifted weights for an hour; came home and ate lunch; took a nap; no mail until Tuesday. Just an ordinary weekend except for no mail tomorrow.

 

It's pouring rain here. Has been since Friday. Okay, occasionally it sprinkled, but the rain hasn't really stopped for more than an hour or two at a time.

Today we've watched all the beach people cut their "long" weekend short and head home. No sense sitting out at the beach, when you can just go home and watch TV, hmm? Oh, and shop. Everyone is shopping...

So, we shopped today

 

I thought Daniel didn't eat dead animals :huh:

 

Hanging out with an Earthship community in Taos, NM. BBQ w/ family and new friends. Playing horseshoes til sunset, beautiful view of mesa and mountains. Memorable.

(Lots of bikers in town this weekend too. Glad we're way out here in the middle of nowhere.)

 

What's an Earthship community? Sounds intriguing!

 

One more reason I prefer conservative Spokane to liberal Seattle. I don't like the politics here, but I don't like constant rain more.

I don't, other than fishes. But I kind of thought a_gray_prius was referring to something other than food. No matter. People always promise to introduce me to a woman, but never do. I quit accepting meal invitations from meat-eaters long ago, when I learned that I was liable to find myself served a large plate of plain boiled eggplant.

I had a friend who was building an "earth ship" house. I spent quite a few hours helping out. He never actually finished it, though.

For those who don't know: Take a lot of used car tires. Fill them with dirt and pound it in with a sledge hammer to make it very compacted. Then lay the dirt-filled tires out as you would bricks, to build walls. Ideally, build it into the side of a hill so it's earth-sheltered on three sides. Very few municipalities will give a building permit for it, so you may have to find an unincorporated area to build it in.

My friend referred to wood houses as "stick houses." I kind of like my stick house.

 

Went to breakfast at a place that was giving free breakfast for military and their families.

Went to the big service on base, all the kids were given ribbons to tie on the trees that represent fallen soldiers (really cute) and had lunch there, Giant BBQ.

I think they are having a firework display in Louisville later but might not go if the kids don't behave.

 

I cannot think of a way to characterize eggplant that properly expresses my opinion of it without risking getting another warning from the mods.

 

Actually, I have. The flavor was nice, but no matter what you do, the consistency of the inside is disgusting, and the outside is like chewing on a rubber glove.

 

It was a small display over the Waterfront. I was worried about going because to the horrible experance we had in Savannah GA with the fourth's display at River St, it was full of drunk people and there wasn't any place for the kids except for the candy store.

Louisville's is different, much more family friendly.