A Tale of Two Fridays

The only reason I'm writing about two Fridays is that I had tons of pictures and did not get around to blogging in a timely manner.

The first Friday was last week, the 3rd of July.

Carol and I had gone to Linda and Gordy's (Ryan's aunt and uncle) in Marion for dinner and a ride on Gordy's work boat to watch the fireworks in Marion Harbor.

After days of rain, Friday was a blessedly beautiful day as evidenced by the nearly cloudless sky overlooking Marion harbor. (Linda and Gordy have a great view from their upper deck.)

That's Linda and Gordy's private dock as seen from one end of their deck.

The blue boat is Gordy's work boat, while the smaller one is the boat that Ryan normally takes out on the water.

In fact, there's Ryan, with his friend Audra, getting ready to shove off on the smaller boat.

Guess it was more fun being on a boat with a friend than hanging around with a bunch of "old farts" at the house. LOL

Here's Carol and our gracious hostess Linda. (Sorry that the pic got a little blurred.)

Carol is making friends with either Sierra or Destiny. (I often cannot tell them apart unless they are together.)

Linda's Dad, Lester, has his dog Puggy in his lap while Ryan's kitten (and Callee's brother and litter mate) Blade looks on.

Grandpa Les and Ryan sharing a bonding moment with their pets. (And Ryan did make it back just before dinner.)

Linda's daughter Wendy joined the fun with her Bernese Mountain Dog "pup" Gus. Gus is about one and half years old and filled with boundless energy.

I couldn't resist this pic of Gus with the goofy tongue.

Sierra or Destiny looking a bit pensive. But don't let that forlorn look fool you. The doggies had a great time visiting with their doggie cousins. It seems as though my house isn't the only place where you can find a swinging dog party!

Now I know that's Destiny because I remember Linda yelling her to get away from the pallets, which are used to block off and protect a nest of baby bunnies that were found in the yard.

As beautiful as the sky was when we arrived to Linda and Gordy's, the fog rolled in once the sun went down. And this was all that we've been able to see of the fireworks.

But despite the disappointing fireworks and the rather chilly harbor, it was still very nice to get out on the water.

And even more important than that, the company was extremely pleasant. We had a wonderful time despite the lack of cooperation that weather gave us.

Anyhow, that concludes the Tale of the First Friday. Now let's move onto the second Friday, which was yesterday.

It was a full day, the kind I appreciate especially since it's often a challenge to find things that will keep me occupied. (And it's an even bigger challenge trying to find things to occupy me that don't cost any money.)

Yesterday I drove down to Providence to visit with Julian, a dear old friend whom I have not seen in several years. (He claims that it's been about 10 years.)

Our first order of business was to stuff our guts.

I wanted to go to Wes's Rib House in the Olneyville section of Providence. Wes's Rib House is famous for it's giant finger-licking pork ribs. And the price of an excellent gut-busting meal won't break the bank either.

Unfortunately, the only negative thing about Wes's Rib House is that it's in a less than desirable neighborhood. But then again, that may not be a bad thing. After all, if Wes's Rib House were located in a much safer and nicer area, it's delicious meals would have not been as easily affordable.

Anyhow, both Julian and I were sated. It was one of the best meals either one of us has had. And what's even greater is that I had oodles of left-overs to bring home and enjoy again the next day.

After eats, I decided that I wanted to stop at the Bubble Tea House on Westminster Street (just past my old high school ~ Classical High). I had been wanting to try bubble tea ever since I read about it in the Providence Monthly.

For those of you who haven't heard of bubble teas (And I was once in that boat, too.), bubble tea is a tea beverage that contains tapioca balls at the bottom of the cup.

In this case, the tapioca balls were large black pearls that were slightly larger than the size of a pea. You sip the drink through a very wide straw so that you could suck up and enjoy the chewy tapioca pearls along with your drink.

Bubble tea comes in all sorts of imaginable flavors. I was struggling to decide between passion fruit and durian flavored bubble tea. Durian won out. Julian picked a less exotic flavor ~ chocolate mocha.

Anyhow, Julian was up to some adventure of the libation persuasion. And it was a good thing too, because his chocolate mocha bubble tea knocked his socks off so much that the Hubble telescope has last seen them shooting past Pluto!

And I loved my beverage as well. It was tasty, refreshing, and fun.

(Next time I go back to Providence, I will have to stop at the Bubble Tea House. And maybe then I'll get the passion fruit bubble tea.)

Following that, we drove to Roger Williams Park.

We were going to visit the zoo, but when we got there it was 3:30, and the zoo was going to close in half an hour. So rather than fork over good money for just half an hour of gawking at the animals (which were probably hiding from the heat), we ambled over to the pond to watch the swan boats, swimming geese and turtles.

Here's my old pal Julian on the bench by the pond.

There were geese all around us. It was so amazing to see all these wild animals so unafraid of humans. We practically had to step over napping geese just to get to the park bench.

Anyhow, this gaggle was making its way to the pond.

And there they all, all in a straight line.

There were two long regimented lines of geese swimming in the pond.

And as we watched, we saw that they were circling the swan boat. It sort of reminded me of those old western movies where the band of Indian raiders would circle around a lone covered wagon in the middle of the prairie.

Here's a small placid group of geese, just before they got involved in the goose raid on the swan boat.

It was rather warm sitting out by the pond, especially since the benches were out in full sun.

So, as we walked back to my car, I had to stop and get a small frozen lemonade to wet my whistle (which doesn't work because I can't whistle).

I drove Julian back to the Veteran's Transition House where he has a room. And from there I drove to Mam's house, so that I could very briefly kill some time before heading out to the opening of Collective Access, an art show featuring the artwork of the key members of the AS220 Print Shop, of which my nephew, Michael, is a part of.

The gallery was a small space. So when I got in, it was very easy to spot Michael right away. He was in the middle of the room, with his white-gloved hands looking slightly out of place with his sharp black suit.

The gloves were not part of a homage to the late Michael Jackson, but to protect the portfolio of art work that Michael was handling and showing gallery visitors.

Michael is an amazingly talented artist who specializes in print making. Not only does he have well-honed technical skills, he has a great eye for composition that is often expressed in a wonderfully quirky manner.

This rabbit print is one of my favorites. (Michael said that it's a favorite of a lot of people.) The composition sort of reminds me of Michael's self-portraits.

Very simple, yet richly detailed.

The vulture is an interesting focal point. But also look very carefully at the fingers.

Self-portrait in typical "Michael" style.

A massive print-making machine.

Very organic.

And this is not an actual photo but a composite of two photos, which were taken in two separate rooms. (I just wanted to have some fun with digital photo manipulation in order to maintain practice.)

All in all, yesterday was a very busy day.

But it was not over yet.

I got home at around 7:30 PM, and was very pleased that I did not find ANY pet accidents in the house.

As happy as they were to see me, and as hungry as they were the dogs were anxious to uncross their legs and run outside to the bathroom.

Half an hour later Barbara showed up with three of her dogs. And though she did not bring any dog cookies with her, the dogs still had a dog party.

However, Barbara brought me a nice treat ~ authentic baklava from Lebanon that was given to her from one of the hospital residents who very recently came back from a trip to Lebanon.

It was very good.