Cape Cod Vacation, Part 5

August 6, 2009

We never got thunderstorms here yesterday, but it's noticeably cooler today. It's been cloudy all day, with a couple of brief showers, so I haven't actually been to the beach yet, and it's almost 5. My main reason for forcing myself to go every day was to make the beach pass pay for itself. The next time I park in a lot, it will. If it's too cold and yucky to swim, I shouldn't feel guilty for deciding not to. Right?

I decided to drive up to Orleans this afternoon to visit Earth House, a hippie-New-Agey shop I used to love back in the late 80s and early 90s. I was delighted to discover that it hasn't changed all that much. Incense, crystals, bumper stickers of any description, hippie clothes and tee shirts (some tie dyes, really!). I walked in through a room of posters, which reminded me of the ones we used to decorate our dorm rooms with back in the 60s and 70s. The dressing room had Indian-print bedspreads, and the entire shop smelled of incense, that mixed-fragrance aroma that's typical of a lot of the old hippie shops and pagan/Wiccan shops I've visited more recently. I bought two long-sleeved rayon batik tops. They're the same style but very different prints: one's kind of a dark royal blue with large flowers in turquoise and olive and lighter blue; the other is purple print on a dark gray-teal background. I've spent all summer looking for some new tops, and I was so pleased to find these even though they were out of my size in the short-sleeved version. The saleswoman (short and heavy-set and very pleasant) was wearing one, and she helped me find these. I also bought some cone incense. I have my grandmother's old incense burner, a little cast iron pot that takes cones. The scent was called Into the Night and it smells very much the way the shop did – a combination of delightful odors.

I drove back down Route 28. Earth House is on Route 6A, and when I drove up to the route 28 intersection, the sign pointing north said Route 28 South, and the sign pointing south said Route 28 North. They weren't turned around, either. Route 28 starts just a short distance from where I was, and while it eventually turns north, it starts out going south and west across the Cape. I drove by Pleasant Bay and enjoyed looking at the water. By the time I was driving away from the center of Chatham, the inbound traffic was backed up for miles. I suppose the less-than-perfect weather was keeping people away from the beach. It was a relief not to be in the traffic myself.

The boys are coming down today. I just called and they're at my house, feeding my cats (who are very starved for affection!). One of them just texted me that they found a dead mouse behind my chair. YUCK!

Yesterday after I posted in this blog, I went down to the center of Harwich Port and bought a couple of books at Reed Books (yes, that's what it's called; the owner's last name is Reed). I walked by my realtor's office because I wanted to find out what this condo is going for – it's on the market, and the fact that my rental was so cheap made me expect the condo would be cheap, too. It is. $149,900. I didn't think you could buy property on the Cape for that little, especially stuff that's between Route 28 and Nantucket Sound. Yeah, it's about a mile from the beach, but still, it's the Cape! I'd buy it, but they only allow one pet. Oh, yeah, and I don't have the money. But if I did, and if I could bring both cats, yeah, I'd consider it.

The place where my sister bought the inflatable whale is now an art gallery. Oh, well.

Later I bought swordfish and took my daily swim. I went fairly late in the afternoon. It was still warm, but very windy, which made for some great waves to jump. Then it was time to grill the swordfish. But when I opened up the gas grill, it looked disgusting - filthy and unpleasant. So I ended up grilling the fish under the broiler. I didn't have any seasonings to speak of, so the fish was a little bland, but very good, with a nice light texture.