It is still our anniversary

I think I am still married. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts thinks so. Arthur does not consider himself married, and is working toward getting the Commonwealth (and me) to agree. In the meantime, it is 44 years since we were married in this exact location.





I have not been spending it weeping or anything. There will be a cheerful Olympics-adjacent post sometime soon, and Flo is visiting for a bit while attending a tap festival in Somerville. Some things are good.

My Olympic day

Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen has gone viral on the web for his love of the chocolate muffins served in the Olympic village cafeteria. I checked this afternoon and a number of people have put recipes online that they think will duplicate it. I am not a heavy eater of chocolate or a person who wants to bake when it's probably 80 degrees in the kitchen, so I bought one of the chocolate muffins available at the Bricco Paneterria in the North End when I was foraging for lunch after ringing practice. We're still picnicking almost every time we ring at Old North. It was good, although not filled with lava.

My usual route between Tai Chi in Davis Square and the North End for ringing is to take the bus to Lechmere and walk the rest of the way. The walking part involves getting close to the large skate park under I-93. I remembered stories about the kindness of skateboarders, so I went up to someone, explained that I had seen some skateboarding on the Olympics, and asked if I could try it very briefly. He agreed, and (at my request) held my hand while I rolled a few inches on his skateboard. As an old person with osteoporosis, it was terrifying, but I was unharmed. Could it really have been almost 60 years since I last tried a skateboard? When it was becoming popular in the 1960s, my father took apart a skate, got a piece of wood from the garage, and made me a skateboard, based on one he'd seen on TV. A neighbor near the school bus stop allowed us to roll down their gently sloping driveway. I never tried any tricks, never got a commercially made skateboard, and didn't do it for very long. But I remember it, and remember my father's care.