Today's Big Mystery

What does it mean when this song keeps playing in your head the entire time you're trying to get dinner ready?

Easy Recipe

Sam and I make this baked apple pancake recipe all the time in the fall and winter. Simple and delicious!

1) Find some apples.

 2) Chop them up and cover with batter.

 3) Sprinkle with plenty of cinnamon.

4) Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Weekend Run Down

Our normally sedate weekend was actually kind of jamb packed.  Let's see how much of it I can remember...

Saturday started with Sam and I (joined by Helaina) running our usual Saturday morning errands. Just the two grocery stores this time. No banks. No post office. Oh, but we did stop along our way at the farmers market. Since Rachael would be visiting, I bought some kale and garlic along with three small containers of maple syrup (all of which will end up in the kids stocking this Christmas - don't say a word).

Back home after the grocery stores, Sam wolfed down his pizza while I put away away the groceries and then threw laundry load #2 into the washer. (Oh yeah. I meant to say the day started with laundry load #1. Please insert above.)

After that, we took off so Sam could meet a friend from his high school days. Sam and his friend bowled while his friend's Mom and I talked about exciting topics such as navigating SSI and DDS and the struggles and anxieties and maybe even the rewards (well...mostly the anxieties) of dealing with all of this. Anyway, it was fun - for me, at least.

Afterwards, Sam wanted to go over to the neighboring town where they were having a so-called "pumpkin festival" - so we headed over for the first of likely our one and only visits.

It's not that there was anything particularly wrong with the pumpkin festival. As a matter of fact, it was perfect - as long as you like crowds of people, loud, blaring music, and a lot of smoke. I happen to like none of those things. Fortunately, Sam likes none of those things, as well. But we stayed long enough to make sure our last impressions matched our first impressions. And they did, so we left.

Note the throngs of annoying people behind Sam. Now imagine this with blaring music.

Since it was still a nice day and since we still had a tiny bit of energy left, Sam and  I decided to head over to the bike path and go for a stroll. We figured it would be a good way to wind down from the "excitement" of the pumpkin festival and allow the loud, blaring music more time to fade out of our still-rattling heads.

The scenery, as usual, was lovely. Particularly so this time of year. Here are a couple of pictures taken from the well-known Bridge of Death...

View from the Bridge of Death.

Another view from the Bridge of Death.

Saturday night, as far as I can remember, was uneventful.

On Sunday, Sam wanted to take in the so-called Scarecrow something-or-other. This was another festival, but in a different neighboring town. For some strange reason, I agreed - and we headed over in the morning. Thankfully, unlike the pumpkin festival, this Scarecrow something-or-other was a lot more to our liking - fewer people, no blaring music, and best of all, fewer people.

At the Scarecrow something-or-other. Note: the fewer people, many of which were not annoying.

The place was pretty much filled with nothing but vendors, each hawking their homemade goods. Most of these goods were things like jams and jellies, wood carvings, various sewn or knitted items, etc. Some of the things were really quite nice but there was, like usual, a fair portion of the "why-is-someone-in-their-presumably-right-mind-investing-their-time-making-all-of-this-stuff-and-anyway,-what-is-it-supposed-to-be?" variety. 

Naturally, Sam took his time looking around, stopping at each booth and having a kind word or two for almost every vendor - usually ending with a, "Well, have a nice day." I spent most of my time trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

Afterwards, Sam and I stopped at the local bakery - which, by the way, was the only place we bought anything(!) and then we headed home once again. I got Sam a quick bite to eat and while he ate, I did some exciting vacuuming around the house (for the second time this month!). Then, Sam and I headed out for a quick visit with Grandma before heading over to pick up Rachael at the bus station.

Back at home, we kept it low-key. For dinner, Sam and I made a baked apple pancake and later, we (meaning everyone but Sam) started to watch a bit of a movie - all the way up to bedtime.

Monday morning was spent with Rachael and I hitting up a couple of stores in the vain hope of finding me a new jacket to replace the raggedy one that I can't seem to give up. I'm pretty sure I bought this current jacket many, many, many years ago at a second hand store and let's just say that it hasn't improved with age - the cuffs have worn through and so has the collar. And any elastic it may have once had has long since given up any elastic-like properties. But it's comfortable - and it's hard to give up on things that are comfortable.

Despite our best efforts, (well, maybe not our best efforts, but efforts none the less) a suitable replacement was not to be found.

So from there, Rachael and I headed over to Sugarloaf mountain - and for some crazy reason, we decided to hike up to the top. (I'm pretty sure this was Rachael's idea.) 

I don't have a lot to say about this - at least, not right now. A couple of years ago, I wrote about walking to the top of Sugarloaf with Sam (way back here) and while I haven't bothered to reread what I wrote back then, I'm reasonably sure that most of what I wrote likely still applies.

Anyway, despite it being "exercise" it was a nice day and certainly the company was great. And as an added bonus, I didn't die on the way up (or on the way down).

Seeing how the walk up Sugarloaf didn't kill me earlier in the day, we decided to make another attempt at it by going on a walk up to the tower on Monday evening.

I was going to mention something about all the mosquitoes buzzing around my head when we got up there- appearing right after I had just finished assuring Sam that there wouldn't be any mosquitoes this time of year- or mention something about the plethora of ladybugs that for some odd reason were all over the tower (which I think might be one of the signs of the End Times), but since I don't have much to say about any of this, I won't get into it.

All that's missing is Jake.

Returning home after the walk, Sam eventually headed to the shower, which gave Helaina, Rachael and I the opportunity to finish the movie we started the night before. I don't normally like to exclude Sam from things but there are some things he won't deal with well - and watching a documentary-style comedy about vampires is one of the things he won't deal with well - no matter how good it is and how ridiculous the spurting blood and other effects are portrayed.

Anyway, this brings us to Tuesday morning. On Tuesday morning, I had to bring Rachael back to the bus station - and from that point on, settle back into my normal, so-called lifestyle. And like much of my usual so-called lifestyle, there is absolutely nothing even remotely interesting to say about it.

But there you have it. That's the busy weekend. I may have the order of some of those things wrong and I'm sure I'm leaving out some other things but, as near as I can tell, those were the highlights.

At least, that's what I remember.

Fall Activity

I should mention that it's apple picking season again. Every year we buy at least two bags to fill up - totaling at least a bushel or more - and every year the bags seem to fill up faster than the year before.

I only took a few pictures this year - which seems to be my trend lately. Here are a few of the few...

The Sunset

This picture was taken back in August of 2010. I think this was our next to the last family vacation on Cape Cod.

I like a lot of things about this picture. I like the memories. I like the subject matter. I like the sunset. But along with all of that, there are things about it which I'm not talented enough to articulate.

There's some kind of analogy in there about my family being on the beach, watching a near-final sunset together - and me with my all too keen awareness that these family vacations were winding down.

And there's something in there about looking to the horizon - or maybe it's about getting ready to set sail - or maybe... any number of things.

Maybe, whatever the analogies are, they're best left to unspoken emotions.

But there's something else in there. Something connected to the three older kids - each of them  looking off towards the sunset together - while Sam looks away in a different direction, looking towards something unseen.

The Little Things, I Guess

The happiest feeling is when I have no idea what I'm going to make for dinner - and then all of a sudden, at the last minute, I have a brainstorm.

It's the same feeling I get when I'm completely stumped on what present to get for someone I love - and then out of nowhere - an idea for the perfect gift.

Ten Two Eighteen

Happy Birthday Dad.