Island in the Stream

Yesterday we left on a small ferry for a tour of the Boston Harbor Islands. The first adventure was finding the ferry dock, as the Google directions were well, basically wrong, or obscure. I don't know. Three adults couldn't figure it out.

We found the place, no sign, and got on board a tiny ferry which took us to Grape, Bumpkin, Hull, and finally Georges Island, where we found a huge old civil war fort, picnic tables, seagulls, and a pleasant place to while away the afternoon.

Took our lunch and beverages and even a table cloth but no booze.

Enjoyed the harbor views, the colorful markings of where the lobster traps were set, the buoys, and the whole nautical ambiance.

Arrived home via the GPS, which we should have programmed to take us there, but we have found the programming sometimes takes longer than getting there. Anyway, GSP took us thru the back roads of Quincy and to a spot where we could navigate from. Quincy is one of the worst towns ever to find your way around in, and they don't believe in a lot of street signs and certainly do like to keep the local tourist bamboozled. I wouldn't even want to think of the non-local tourist. It would be ugly.

Today we're seeing a Pawsox game and the fireworks afterward. Dinner at the ball park. Tomorrow we're doing the tacos we didn't cook last night. So tired we treked to the 99 and had a bang up meal of prime rib and barbequed ribs and deep fried asparagus, caesar salad, hey, we were hungry as well as pooped.

Tonight there will be 500,000 people at the Hatch shell and the fireworks, and we have decided this is just a bit much. Quite a bit much. And one can't line up on the Longfellow Bridge this year, always a good viewing spot.

I hope the music is better than past years. Sometimes they get carried away with pop music that isn't very good. I favor John Phillip Sousa on the 4th of July, along with the 1812 overture and patriotic songs. Can't help it. Just an old fashioned grrrrl.

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Grapeshot

The Trial, But Not Kafkaesque

Four days of sitting on rock hard benches in the swanky new Federal Courthouse on Boston's harborfront. Your tax dollars at work in a pleasing, esthetic way. Great view, good cafeteria, fast elevators, an easy walk from South Station. I don't even remember when I last dressed up four days in a row, as in tailored jacket. Not that this is a great hardship.

Should have been a lawyer. That is one of the week's epiphanies. Water way the hell over the dam and the rapids and through the sluice gates and the weirs, but self-discovery is always a shock. I find that even at my advanced (ha ha) age, I can remember the most minute details. Keep having to stifle myself from rushing up and giving counsel, defendants, even plaintiffs advice. Who woulda thunk. Gee whiz, Grapeshot could have been writing legal thrillers.

As Don McClean noted, isn't LIFE THE PERFECT THING TO PASS THE TIME AWAY?
Two key things have come out of all the hours spent.
1) I got a terrific 2 line description for a characters
2) The decision to dive into my half-begun memoir "Twenty-five Years in Information Systems." I started writing it over a year ago for Gather web-site and wrote a few posts. Seemed well-received, then I got busy doing other stuff, like finishing Festival Madness, and dropped it. Went back and read the segments and they pretty much sucked. Thought, "you an do better than that." From time to time I thought of it, and now with this postscript finale to my career, such as it was, I think I can do a bang-up job, maybe even a slim volume to tempt a non-fiction publishers. Cause I got tales to tell. No names or companies. Have to make some up. No problemo.

So: right now, I still have to finish the second pass thru Festival Madness, and continue pushing World of Mirrors, although an agent has the MS and someone else is nibbling.
It's always good to have a plan. The California book, now tentatively titled Such Stuff As Dreams, can lie fallow in my head, as the Wisconsin book, Promiscuous Mode, did.

I am confident enough in Promiscuous Mode that if I find agent/publisher they will take on that book, too. Because it's fun. Zany. Interesting. Even instructive. And I really want to do a book signing in Minnocqua, WI. So there.

Miles to go.

Grapeshot