I went to see my osteopath in Harwich on Wednesday. On the way back, the car began to make weird noises, sort of grinding noises.  Woody took it to a local mechanic who amazingly replaced the worn out brakes before they closed.  We were very glad it happened on Wednesday, as we had plans off-Cape for Thursday.

We got up @ six and picked up Ralph and Gigi.  Woody had received a free  press pass for Jurassic Quest at Gillette in Foxborough, good for a car-full because of his weekly WOMR interviews and short essays on the Friday news.  It seemed like a fun thing to do.  None of us have really been off-Cape for a year a half. 

We got there, followed confusing signs and finally found the event.  It as not in the stadium as I had imagined but in a vast parking lot across the highway from Gillette.  There were yellow cones scattered randomly scattered across the field.  We got in line and drove very slowly into the dinosaurs.   The press releases had said they were anatomically correct and indeed they were painted and often feathered as is correct.   However, they did not say lifesized and indeed they were much smaller than we expected.  The cones were confusing leading us into a fairly random maze where cars were going every which way in utter confusion. We began to laugh at how confusing it was and how cars were wandering around and around.  We had been given a way to hear the commentary but it never matched where we were or what we were seeing and a lot of it was just chatter attempting to be cute..  Many of the rubber creatures roared but all the roars sounded the same.  We were all laughing at the absurdity of what we were doing, in a maze of yellow cones with smallish but realistic dinos all around us in a rchaotic process of slowly creeping cars turning this way and that in a nonsensical maze, cars mostly full of a mother and kids.  It was one of the silliest things I’ve ever done.  But we had a good time cracking jokes, staring at the replicas and watching other cars try to navigate the mess.

 hen we went to Davio’s @ Patriot Place – which all of us of course had heard about but never seen.  We had a great but very slow lunch. It was the first time in a restaurant  since Covid hit for all of us except Woody who had been in one a couple of weeks ago. The food was good and more than Ralph or I could eat, so we got doggy bags. We all agreed the hype was ridiculous but that we had a great time together.  For me it was a dry run to find out if I could travel a bit.

 Just going over the bridge was a thrill.  I was wondering if I could still manage, but I did so I know we can go to Maine in September if we so choose. On the way back, the engine light came on again. The car is back at the local mechanics for him to try to find out why the light came back on.  The brakes were fine so it was something else.  No more grinding sounds but the light on is a problem.

A while ago, I saw a video on CNN about a mother cat shielding her kittens under her and not moving as a rattlesnake fatally struck her again and again.   I was moved for her, how she gave her life. Then it occurred to me some fucking photographer was letting it all happen.  instead of saving her, which could easily have been done instead of making a video, which I suspect as set up, probably poking the snake to make it mad.  Immediately after she died, a man came and carried her body away – presumably leaving the kittens to die.  It was a total setup, sacrificing the mother and probably the kittens she died protecting  – because who of that crew was about to feed the kittens milk replacement every two hours.  Sometimes I hate photographers.