Two weekends of bells and people
Mar. 3rd, 2018 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
choco_frosh(First, before anyone asks: no, I didn't have the 'flu.)
As of yesterday morning, the sea had spilled over the tops of the wharves down on the Boston waterfront, over the sidewalks and the streets and probably the lobbies of the absurdly expensive condos in that neck of the woods. We'd been hit by a Nor'easter: that's a thing that happens.* (What I *am* going to blame on global warming was that it came down as rain.) But the Boston Globe had pictures and videos of all of the sea-washed wharves and sidewalks, which kinda ironic because my brother and I had been walking precisely there six days earlier.
This was the last weekend Dan and I were going to be able to hang out before he entered ten weeks of non-stop rehearsals for about three different plays and festivals. For a change, he came down to Boston, rather than me up Portland. I was a little conflicted, since him coming down meant I'd have to skip Saturday practice; but in fact, he was interested to see where I rang, and getting to see me actually ringing (and climb the tower to watch the bells as THEY were ringing) was an unexpected bonus. Like being able to make it to practice was for me.
Afterwards, we split one of those ginormous steak sandwiches from Dino's, made the nigh-obligatory trip to Mike's Pastry, and then, as I mentioned, wandered along the waterfront, catching up. We only got lost when we left it and tried to find a T station.
We bought beer, we made a meat pie, and then we hosted an evening of boardgames, featuringteenybuffalo, my friend E. from running club, and assorted bellringers and snacks and games. We slept late (by my standards) / got up early (by Dan's); then I went off to ringing, because we only had like four people signed up when I'd checked last, and he headed back to Portland for his first rehearsal...
Yesterday, I braved the wet and the rain falling horizontaly not only to go to work, but to do dinner with Teeny, since we both agreed that we don't cook enough, and especially don't cook enough with other friends. So that was pretty awesome, and now we also have lentil soup to last us for days, and also she helped me splice a bellrope that had broken the previous weekend, so she gets all the points.
And today I got up stupid early in favor of driving down to Hingham, a.k.a. the nearest tower that isn't Boston. I'd been down there once before, with a large contingent of fellow Boston ringers and various visitors from further away; but that had been an actual official event, so this time it was just me and M...who turns out to be involved in a bunch of my bellringing-related adventures, actually. So did an hour of practice with them, then hauled butt back to Boston for an hour of REGULAR practice, and finally some time spent being videotaped so that Old North can maybe have a video of ringing for the tourists that wasn't copied from VHS and doesn't suck...
So anyway, it's been a fun weekend so far, but a tiring one, and even more dominated by ringing than usual.
Postscript: Aww, man, I didn't even have time to talk about the apartment stuff! Uh, bug me to do that maybe tomorrow. I have to be up in like eight hours.
* My fellow traveler down to Hingham wondered, "I wonder if, when you buy a house in Hull, you just assume that you're going to have vast quantities of flooding damage every couple of years."
As of yesterday morning, the sea had spilled over the tops of the wharves down on the Boston waterfront, over the sidewalks and the streets and probably the lobbies of the absurdly expensive condos in that neck of the woods. We'd been hit by a Nor'easter: that's a thing that happens.* (What I *am* going to blame on global warming was that it came down as rain.) But the Boston Globe had pictures and videos of all of the sea-washed wharves and sidewalks, which kinda ironic because my brother and I had been walking precisely there six days earlier.
This was the last weekend Dan and I were going to be able to hang out before he entered ten weeks of non-stop rehearsals for about three different plays and festivals. For a change, he came down to Boston, rather than me up Portland. I was a little conflicted, since him coming down meant I'd have to skip Saturday practice; but in fact, he was interested to see where I rang, and getting to see me actually ringing (and climb the tower to watch the bells as THEY were ringing) was an unexpected bonus. Like being able to make it to practice was for me.
Afterwards, we split one of those ginormous steak sandwiches from Dino's, made the nigh-obligatory trip to Mike's Pastry, and then, as I mentioned, wandered along the waterfront, catching up. We only got lost when we left it and tried to find a T station.
We bought beer, we made a meat pie, and then we hosted an evening of boardgames, featuring
teenybuffalo, my friend E. from running club, and assorted bellringers and snacks and games. We slept late (by my standards) / got up early (by Dan's); then I went off to ringing, because we only had like four people signed up when I'd checked last, and he headed back to Portland for his first rehearsal...Yesterday, I braved the wet and the rain falling horizontaly not only to go to work, but to do dinner with Teeny, since we both agreed that we don't cook enough, and especially don't cook enough with other friends. So that was pretty awesome, and now we also have lentil soup to last us for days, and also she helped me splice a bellrope that had broken the previous weekend, so she gets all the points.
And today I got up stupid early in favor of driving down to Hingham, a.k.a. the nearest tower that isn't Boston. I'd been down there once before, with a large contingent of fellow Boston ringers and various visitors from further away; but that had been an actual official event, so this time it was just me and M...who turns out to be involved in a bunch of my bellringing-related adventures, actually. So did an hour of practice with them, then hauled butt back to Boston for an hour of REGULAR practice, and finally some time spent being videotaped so that Old North can maybe have a video of ringing for the tourists that wasn't copied from VHS and doesn't suck...
So anyway, it's been a fun weekend so far, but a tiring one, and even more dominated by ringing than usual.
Postscript: Aww, man, I didn't even have time to talk about the apartment stuff! Uh, bug me to do that maybe tomorrow. I have to be up in like eight hours.
* My fellow traveler down to Hingham wondered, "I wonder if, when you buy a house in Hull, you just assume that you're going to have vast quantities of flooding damage every couple of years."
no subject
Date: 2018-03-04 02:52 pm (UTC)I had a similar reflective moment of having walked across our backyard Friday morning, in the exact spot on which a large tree later crashed down.