2000-08-25 - 7:19 p.m.-ish

Now playing: Thornhill.

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Ellen, hon, there's nothing wrong with my upstairs neighbors vacuuming at any time. Except when I'm home. And awake. ;)

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New guy moving in across the hall from me. Sorry folks, you missed your chance.

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What a day I had today. Granny asked me to take her to the Taste of Holyoke. Holyoke, for you non-natives, is a small industrial city between here and Northampton that got rich on silk and paper mills, and then went bust in the 60's I guess and is now trying to make a comeback. Anyway, so I collect her off Wilbraham Mountain where she lives. Drive to Holyoke, which was like a 40-minute drive. Park, grab lawn chairs, stake out a spot on the park lawn, etc. There's like 15 food booths, max. Pathetic! So, Granny's in line to buy tickets, and asked me to hold on to all the extra crap she brought along (pair of shoes, umbrella, extra hat). So I'm holding this straw hat with a blue flouncy ribbon on it, and I say, "Granny, I don't think the hat will fit me," and I put it on my head. "Nope, doesn't fit." Well, the guy in front of us cracks up, and 5 minutes later he hands me his unused tickets saying, "This is for trying on the hat." Funny, but weirdddddd.

So, Granny had her cup of soup from the Yankee Pedlar, I had pork and rice from Fernandez, and she also had a sundae cup from Friendly's. Meanwhile, on the stage there is a "talent show" consisting of students from local dance studios dancing. And since this is Holyoke, home to the largest Puerto Rican population outside of Puerto Rico, salsa and merengue were predominately featured. Apparently the gist of dancing to that if you're female is to shake your chest and your butt. Hoo-hah, there was one woman who was wearing a tube top who shouldn't have been. I wish I could snark like Amanda; I would have said something witty, but all I could think of at the time were things like "What are you trying to do, make that silicon heat up and fuse into glass?" Feh. So after being there for about an hour and a half we left.

The weather being absolutely gorgeous, Granny suggested we go to the Summit House on Skinner Mountain. There's an old resort there that's now a state park. Anyway, since I've heard the view from there is gorgeous, and had never been there, and since it was only like 2:30, I said sure, let's go!

Well. For those of you who don't know, I'm wicked afraid of heights. Let's just say that going up to see the view was NOT a good idea. I was getting antsy just on the drive up there, how the road switchbacked without the benefit of guard rails.

We were there for maybe 20 minutes or half an hour. Granny had to visit the restroom (of course) and then we took our leave. Driving down that blasted road left me a nervous wreck, and of course Granny thought it was the perfect time to talk about Mom's excursion up Mount Washington with Auntie Val back in the '60's when Mom cowered in the back seat of the car under a blanket. Thanks, Granny.

We stopped for iced coffee on the way back, and I brought her home. Other than the Summit House jaunt, it wasn't too bad of a way to spend a half-day off. I realized this was especially true when I read how Ellen wishes she had spent more time with her grandmother. They may drive me nuts, but my grandparents will die eventually (we think) so I had better appreciate what time I can spend with them.

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Tomorrow's big plan is to do lots of laundry at Mom's. Woo hoo! I love clean sheets.