We’ve all had enough of the Covid 19 pandemic. Lockdowns, masks, travel restrictions, vaccine wars and toilet paper shortages have definitely taken their toll on the collective sanity. And while we’ve all tried to cope the best way we can… one woman has a slightly different method.
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Hmm.
I’ve been out of the loop lately. Are sun powered orgasms the new thing?
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I can’t honestly say solar vibrator ranks high on my global plague survival list, but then again… what do I know?
I lobbied hard for this cute little piggy joining the Casa River family ( for pure blog fodder alone, he’s golden ) but was met with a resounding no from the husband.
Shingles were lifted and stripped ( in the valley of the addition that I’d been telling the husband to do for the past 5 years! )
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And this time, lo and behold…
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They found something. Wet tar paper and damp wood underneath. Apparently there was a hump in the channel and water was sitting instead of running.
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They worked all day and (hopefully) resolved this never ending issue. Time will tell…. But I think a full roof replacement is in the cards for next spring, even though it’s not even close to the warranty date of the shingles.
The husband has been trying to talk me into trading in my 2014 Subaru Forester for years now. But I love Ethel, and she only has 64,000 gentle miles, so I keep saying no.
Determined to prove that now is the perfect time to upgrade, I allowed him to drag me to a dealership to check out the 2022 models. There was only one problem.
There aren’t any 2022 models.
We checked 4 dealerships, but due to chip shortages and shipping backlogs the closest they could show me was a 2021 loaner of an entirely different grade.
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The husband insisted we test drive it, which we did. And while I admit it was newer and a bit peppier than mine, I was less than thrilled with the new energy conserving process that shuts off the engine every time you idle at a stop light. While the actual shutting down was smooth, the restart was jarring and bound to be annoying over time. They told us we could disable the feature, but it would have to be done every single time we drove as it resets to default.
For $38,000 plus? I said no thanks. But the husband was pushing me to order a new one and wait God knows how many months to get it….
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So he dragged me into the salesman’s office and had them appraise Ethel for a trade.
My Ethel.
I understand she’s 7 years old.. but she has low mileage and is loaded (with heated leather seats, back up camera, Nav and panoramic moon roof). My absolutely perfect Ethel… who Kelly Blue Book says has a trade in value of $16,500 and a private sale value of $17,800?
They offered us $10,000.
And that was all it took for my husband to be insulted, leave and stop badgering me to trade my vehicle.
Thank you Covid 19. Your virus induced shortages actually benefitted me this time around.
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After that fiasco, it was time for lunch at one of our favorite waterfront restaurants.
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A raspberry lime gin Ricky…
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And a scrumptious crab cake appetizer later, I was on my way to happy.
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Add a Campari Sangria and a fresh panko breaded haddock sandwich… and I was there.
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The husband started with clam chowder and moved on to a blood rare filet with grilled asparagus which, while quite satisfying….
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Set our wallet back a cool $53.
So yeah, thanks Covid 19 for driving food prices up so high our favorite place for lunch now makes my debit card shudder.
Since we were unable to ride the actual train, we had to check out the little Cog Railway museum while we were there. I won’t drone on about the engineering wonder it was….
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But I will draw your attention to this…
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I simply can not imagine flying down the mountainside on a small piece of wood.
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And trust me, it was small. It’s hard to tell from that picture but look closely and you’ll realize big butt people need not apply.
The final stop on our leaf peeping day trip tour was the Cog Railway on Mount Washington.
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This is one of those “must do” tourist things that we’ve never managed to do and since we were in the area, we thought… why not?
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The answer to that question was hundreds of other tourists who thought the same thing. The place was packed and there was no space available on the trains for the next 3 days without reservations.
The Cog is a strange beast.
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And like no other train ride you’re ever apt to take.
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So even though we couldn’t find a seat, we stayed to watch.
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With a slowly dying beautiful remnant of summer.
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That’s the husband taking a closer look at the bridge.
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And this is the Cog.
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Beginning it’s climb up the mountain at a breath taking 2.7 mph.
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Here’s a shot of the unique rail line.
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I won’t bore those who don’t care about trains or history, but if you’re interested you can check this out:
River's world..... 