I woke up in Boston.

Today is Friday, September 28, 2018
This is my 171st consecutive daily posting.

Time is 4.18am and Boston’s temperature is 59*.
Morning rain will surrender to afternoon showers.

I arrived in Boston at 4.00pm. My friends at the concierge desk unloaded my entire car for me and brought the luggage (baggage?) upstairs for me while I went out for coffee.

I walked out through the North End and then to Whole Foods where I bought dinner. Pretty gratifying how many people asked me about the car, having been following the blog.

Last night my cousin Lauren came over for dinner: a bone-in prime rib, medium rare, with broccoli and potatoes. We drank a bottle of 2005 Clerc Milon that was wonderful.
And we watched “Under the Tuscan Sun,” setting a tentative date for a trip to Tuscany: after Lauren’s graduation, December 2020, and after Kat’s graduation, May, 2021.

Today, after I take the car to Broadway Sunoco for analysis and repair, my friends there, Frank, Abe, and Elias have done all my car maintenance for the last fifteen years, I’ll make a trip to the dry cleaners, so some shopping, and lift weights.
Ana, who has been cleaning my apartment once a week for the last fifteen years, will come over and do my laundry.
The year I moved into Somerville, Kat and I lived there for near ten years before moving into Boston, I found both Ana and Broadway Sunoco and hung on ever since.

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On Wednesday, after breakfast in Swarthmore with Kat, I drove into Philadelphia and spent two gorgeous hours looking at great art.

Eventually, I’ll share all the photos I shot on this trip.
Today I’m posting some photos of Shaker furniture on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’

I chose the Shaker pieces to share because of a personal connection.
My first wife, Toni Lee, now passed, furnished our Cape Cod home with furniture just like the pieces here, buying and assembling furniture kits from a Shaker group.
It was a prodigious amount of work involving glueing the wooden pieces together, staining and varnishing the frames, and weaving fabric tape into seats and backs. The results were stunning.
Although I’m not comparing them to these pieces.

Our dining room table seated twenty-four and we had twenty-two side chairs and two arm chairs.
We also had a rocker and bench.

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After the museum visit I drove into old Philadelphia lucked into a terrific coffee house.
There I met a lovely young woman, Cindy, who made a wonderfully tasting cappuccino.
And gorgeous.
Both.
Cindy and the coffee.
Here they are.
You know, I really should’ve taken a picture of the cafe.
Live and learn.

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After the café, I made my way to the Harbor Walk, an attractive Philly boast.
They have hammocks strung out there and I availed myself of one, lying down for a refreshing thirteen minutes.
Totally reviving.
Here are some random pictures of that area.

Just a taste of the walk.
In season, the food, including crabs in the rough, is quite popular.
Or one can rest a bit.
Or enjoy the Independence Seaport Museum.
Or just the waters of the Delaware River.

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I’ll close now.
I loved the trip and will talk more about it as I get back to a normal routine.
Meanwhile, look for more ambitious blogs in the days to come.

Love you all.

Dom