Day 182, Year 11: Purple Rain, Daffodils, and Adirondack Chairs
Date: Thursday, April 21, 2016
Weather: Sunny and Cool, High on the Cape 55 degrees F
Location: Staying at Heather and Jed’s, East Falmouth, MA
Adirondack chairs were really the focus today, but before getting into that story I’ll mention our connection to Purple Rain. With Prince’s passing today, we were all reminded of his song, album, and rock musical drama, all with the name–Purple Rain. It was a huge hit in 1984, the year we moved from our farm in southern West Virginia to Salisbury, Maryland. The home we bought there was on the corner of a street and all along the side-street part of the property were these beautiful, big, old Crepe Myrtle trees. We didn’t move into the house until late summer 1984, so we didn’t get to see these magnificent trees in bloom that year. But the next summer when we did see them in bloom, we were all awe-struck with their beauty. In 1985, all of the trees were heavy with those tiny little purple blossoms. And when the blossoms fell onto the street, it literally looked like purple rain. Thus, our first connection to Prince.
Now to what was happening in our world today. This morning I waited for the Adirondack chairs to dry since I had washed them with the special prep cleaner last evening. Before noon I deemed them thoroughly dry and I started the water sealing process. Heather and Jed bought the sealer and when I opened the can and gave it a stir, I was surprised to see that it was chalky gray in color and the consistency of watered-down Elmer’s Glue. As I quickly found out, Adirondack chairs are incredibly difficult to coat as the sealer dripped through all of the cracks. I was using a brush but I could not possibly brush out this thick liquid so I grabbed a rag and brushed and rubbed, constantly turning the chair over to do the same on the underside as that is where the drips went. Something I estimated would take an hour was taking much longer. I got two chairs done before it was time to leave to go sign the rental agreement on the apartment. I was exhausted from constantly turning the chairs and my back was killing me from bending over. But more than anything, I was totally frustrated with the incredibly bad job I was doing. Thank goodness these are lawn chairs are not fine furniture! Long story short, I finished two chairs before we had to leave and then coated the third chair when we returned from our afternoon outing. Then I called it a day. I had thought that I could get the two required coats on each of the three chairs this afternoon, but that just didn’t happen. These chairs were bought at The Christmas Tree Shop for about $50 each. Last fall when they were purchased, Heather and Jed had already bought two beautiful wooden Adirondacks from L. L. Bean (with a life-time guarantee on the painted finish), but the cost for each of those was six times as much as the unfinished wooden chairs at The Christmas Tree Shop. For Heather’s birthday the end of September she wanted three more chairs so the kids would each have one. I thought it was ridiculous to pay $300 for a lawn chair and encouraged the purchase of the cheaper ones. But I stand corrected. Now I know first-hand why an Adirondack chair with a life-time guaranteed finish costs $300. You get what you pay for.
Our afternoon outing took us to The Studio where we signed the rental agreement for the apartment. We were not able to get in to see the apartment again, but Ed, the resident maintenance man, had drawn a diagram of the place with measurements. He wants to fancy it up a bit and then Amanda, the owner’s daughter we have been working with, will send it to us. That will help with our planning of what might actually fit into the apartment. After that appointment, we drove to the other side of the harbor to West Marine. Mark wanted to visit with the gang there and we were quite surprised to see that the entire store has been re-arranged. The new set-up makes the store seem so much larger. Mark probably won’t be able to work there this summer, but I know he will be walking around the harbor to visit quite often. We then drove to Spohr Gardens to see the daffodils. I have mentioned that I would have liked to return here this weekend for Daffodil Days at the Gardens, but then I realized that we could just go there and take a walk on our own. It is just a short walk around the Gardens, but Mark had never been there and he really enjoyed the views across the pond. He also loved the collection of huge anchors on display. Some of the daffodils were a little past their peak, but most were still lovely. When we left the Gardens and headed back to Surf Drive we saw our first osprey of the season. It is always an exciting time of year when you see your old friends return home.
Tomorrow we leave here at 6:30 am in order to get to Mass General by 9 am. And tomorrow night we will be back in the condo in Lowell. Heather, Jed, and boys will return here from their school vacation week in Washington, DC, visiting with Grammy Goldstone. And sometime this weekend Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco will return home from a school vacation camping trip on the island of Culebra. We’ll be so anxious to hear about all of their adventures.
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| 160421 Day 182 Cape Cod, USA–Daffodils and Osprey |
