Hope on Two Wheels

Please excuse any typos. I again misplaced my reading glasses, this time perhaps at the Dockside Restaurant in Belfast at dinner last night. I can't go back to check yet because it is closed today (Monday).

Our hotel has bicycles all ready and waiting, tires pumped full and hard. Bells on the handlebars, a basket, helmet and lock for each bike. Guests can use them for free. I plan to bike Route 1A over to the old foot bridge into Belfast. I think it will lift my spirit, which has been lagging and dragging since Saturday night due to sister squabbles, mean words, tight quarters, four of us in the hotel room. Toxic times and scary stuff. Today is a good window to go because the weather is sunny and sweet, Figgy went shopping in town, Dan drove in to see his Mom and his bros, and Punchy's cousin, Izzy, took her to the beach.

Meanwhile, some photos:

My nuclear family with our nephew's son, Wilder, at Leah and Greg's wedding party Saturday at Mere Point, Maine. The wedding couple, so much to love in each other, and the world loves them back. The abundant mason jars of farm-grown pink peonies and sweet peas, yellow snapdragons--so perfect. Excellent coffee (it was chilly and overcast), tapas and an ice cream truck from Stone Fox Farm Creamery.

Our niece Anna, who was a flower girl in our wedding 33 years ago, and Figgy.

River Bridge view with fairy lights, pocket-size ice cream shop in Camden.

View from our hotel.

I pray/aspire to stop simmering in fear and resentment. To put them down. To trust God to watch over and guide me and the ones I hold close.

"We don't struggle," my longtime friend reminded me.

Okay. The view is pretty here.

I've been sitting here in the lobby, went on a 10 a.m. Zoom support group on my phone. Figgy said she gathered shells for me yesterday and left them on the hotel dresser. Will go and see them now.

September Starts with a Doggy Bag: Day 2 Carb War

I ate half my dinner at restaurant last night, had the rest for lunch today, after Mass. Pork loin, broccoli rabe, Italian red peppers...very good. I added 2 slices Ezekiel sesame toast, one with hummus and one with a moderate slice of gorgonzola cheese....both slices topped with a round of fresh garden tomato from my friend Elaine.

Riding Citi Bikes in NYC has been on Dan's bucket list for years. He and I did it today, and it was fun. We pedaled along the Hudson River, on that busy path. It was very pretty. I liked the blue bike, too--very sturdy, and biking always brings an element of girlhood freedom for me. The one downside was having to check in at a dock every 30 minutes....we did that at least 3 times.

TCOY

1. Mass. Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, Father Marc said as part of the Mass. I've heard it thousands of times, but today it really reached my heart. I think because Punch was not there to distract me. It shocks me, BTW, that I just calculated that in my life, I have been to Sunday Mass thousands of times. For every ten years of my life, if I went every week, and I usually did, that would be 520 times.
2. Excellent iced coffee in NYC.
3. The bike ride.
4. Long walk back to Port.
5. Enjoyed fruit--fresh figs, mangoes [bought both because Punchy loves them, too].
6. Listening to body, when it feels full, when it feels shaky, wobbly and hungry.
7. Had brown rice bowl with chicken and avocado.
8. Talked to Moey.
9. Making overnight oats.
10. Washed dresses.

$ MONEY SPENT OUT OF POCKET

• La Colombe iced coffee plus $1 tip, $5.50. Liked location at 27th Street Terminal Warehouse. Excellent decaf. 
• Birthday card, $8.50.
• Starbucks, $2.15.
• Citarella at Hudson Yards on my walk home, rice and chicken bowl, mango, figs, pesto, half and half, $35.
• Two DeCamp bus tickets, Montclair to NYC, $15.30.
• Printed Matter shop, dental floss with slogan on container for Fig, plus tax, $10.80.

TOTAL DAILY SPEND: $77.25.

ONGOING MONTHLY TOTAL AS OF SEPTEMBER 1: $77.25.

AVERAGE DAILY SPEND SO FAR: $77.25.

Big-ticket 🎟🎟 September spends:

🎟 Citarella at Hudson Yards, dinner plus fresh fruit, etc. to bring home, $35.

Back Home with a Healthy Perspective

Cape Cod Rail Trail [bike path]. Before Dan and I were parents,
we pedaled really far one day, returning to Eastham in
the dark.

Beautiful image of the trail
from frugalfrolicker.com. Great website name! 

Didn't do much today except dig into the 10 days worth of vacay laundry we schlepped back, check a work email/article comments, eat leftover clam chowder from Mac's in Wellfleet, rest, go to Private Benjamin appointment, get a few groceries, make dinner and spruce up the garden. Punchy is with Mimi in North Carolina for a little vacay. That petite brunetti gets around.

And Dan and I split a perfect peach from the tree he has been carefully nurturing. Surprise, we returned home to golden globes hanging on the branches, and fallen fruit, too.

I have Cape Cod in the pocket of the short, swingy Nicole Miller dress I got for $19.99 at T.J. Maxx up there. Memories of the bike path, the freedom of pedaling past ponds, marsh grass.....the pleasure of riding with family. I biked with Dan and with Fig, Florida Orange and Punch. There's pure joy in seeing your children on bikes, helmets fastened under their chins, healthy and happy and pushing along on a tree-lined path. The little sister looking like a martian in her green helmet, determined to keep up with her big sister and cousin. They are with you and they are safe. Life isn't always like that.

Dan and I biked really far one day the summer before we had Figgy. We had been battling infertility, and I was going to a high-profile doctor on the Upper East Side in NYC. On a break from biking, I checked our home voice mails, the way you would remotely back then, calling our answering machine from a payphone and entering a code to play messages. [This was 1994.] I just remember that the dr. left me an encouraging message, and that I then called Moey, who was home with her young son, Kevin, and told her.

Anyway, let me update the dollars.

$ MONEY SPENT OUT OF POCKET

• Parking meter, 50 cents.
• ATM bank fee, $3. 
• Le Salbuen on Walnut Street, iced coffee, $4.27 plus $1 tip, $5.27.
• ShopRite, organic milk, leaf bags, mushrooms, pasta, bananas, vegan ice cream, Dove sorbet pops, $26.26.

TOTAL DAILY SPEND: $35.03.
TOTAL MONTHLY SPEND AS OF AUGUST 13: $1,854.59.

AVERAGE DAILY SPEND FOR MONTH SO FAR: $142.66.

[I added in all Cape and travel days now.]

Hot, big-money spends in August, or how I spent our bread:

🥖 Fill gas tank twice on Cape Cod, $46 x 2= $92.
🥖Idle Times bike shop rental for Punch from noon Saturday until 5 p.m. Sunday, $31.
🥖T.J. Maxx, four designer dresses, Adidas sneakers, knock-off lightweight Burberry scarf, Olga bra, Lauren pillow, shorts, etc. etc.,  $338.

🥖Pizza+ dinner with Punch after swimming in pond in Brewster until after 7 p.m., $77.

🥖Mac's Market & Kitchen, lobster, clams, kale salad, mango salsa and other Sunday dinner ingredients, $53.

🥖Brewster bakery, including cookbook I somehow lost, maybe a message from God because it was packed with recipes for sweets, $25.
🥖2 Massachusetts mugs, one for Cape and one for home, $28.
🥖Commando.com, black half-slip, $65.
🥖Arnold's Lobster & Clam Bar, fried clam belly basket plus tip, $30.
🥖Pure Vita, the new CBD [not for me] and natural home care store with essential-oil bar and pretty pineapple throw pillow case for Cape house, votive candles, seaweed/lavender bath sachets, $52.
🥖Stop & Shop, Cape groceries, $29 + $40 + $52=$121.
🥖Lobster roll supper with P. at Adams Lodge in Wellfleet, $32.
🥖Eastham info booth, pink sweatshirt, $30.
🥖Mass Audubon annual family membership, $65.
🥖Sunbird breakfast sandwich w citrus mayonnaise on grilled ciabatta plus expensive coffee beans from, of all places, Portland, Maine, plus tip, $27.

🥖Audubon gift shop, small turtle rug for home; bird gift for Figgy; goat milk body wash; Bee Boss Body Balm, which I love for lips, too; small owl wall calendar for family, with member discount, $88. 
🥖Vineyard Vines, candy-pink gingham skort, orig $98, now on sale for $68.99, plus shipping, $79.
🥖Mac’s Market & Kitchen, lobster, scallops, salmon, lemon, cornbread square, crackers, $49.

COMPARISON SHOPPING. That long Cape Cod vacay in 
August really drove the numbers up so far.

TOTAL SPEND FOR MONTH OF JULY [STARTING JULY 5; I LOST A FEW DAYS THERE]: $1,610.81. 👛 🎯 ⬇️
JULY AVERAGE DAILY SPEND: $59.66!  👛 🎯 ⬇️

TOTAL SPEND FOR MONTH OF MAY: $2,348.24.

MAY AVERAGE DAILY SPEND: $75.75. 

TOTAL SPEND FOR MONTH OF APRIL: $3,634.28.

APRIL AVERAGE DAILY SPEND: $121.14.