Rediscovering the Day

Periodically, I get reminders from my online photos, allowing me the opportunity to “rediscover this day” from a previous year. The photo above is one example of this. It was taken exactly a year ago today, on a walk that Sam and I went on, through the woods at the edge of town.

We haven’t walked those woods at all this year. When it hasn’t been rainy, it’s been too humid. Even under the best of conditions, the place can be pretty buggy. But with the air being as humid as it's been, I expect the preponderance of mosquitoes would carry us away. 

And now, with the declining daylight hours, the thought of going for an evening walk along a buggy, unlit wooded path is even less appealing. Because of this, it's looking like going for a walk in these woods is going to be one more thing that's moved to our “maybe next year” column.

The other thing I want to mention about this photo - which is completely unrelated to the walk in the woods - is that the photo was taken on Dad's birthday. 

I can't remember whether I was thinking about this when I took the photo, but I've been thinking about it today.

Today's Brief Comment

The long awaited Transition Meeting for Sam has been scheduled for a week from Tuesday.

Cold Weather Cooking

All of a sudden, the weather turned sharply colder this weekend - especially the nights. For us, this meant pulling the tiny, old air conditioner out of the dining room window. And it meant that it was time for Sam and I to shift into our fall/winter/spring mode of cooking.

Removing the air conditioner was no big deal - other than a wrenched back. Figuring out what we were going to cook took a little more time.

For our first hot, un-grilled meal in quite a while, we decided we would ease into our colder weather cooking projects by cooking something in the crock pot. This involved two things. It involved me going down the basement to try to find where I put the crock pot. And it involved Sam and I figuring out what were were going to do with it, when and if I found it.

Finding the crock pot isn't as easy as it sounds. It had been about eight or nine months since I last used it, and this meant that wherever it was in the basement, it had about eight or nine months worth of opportunities for crap to get stacked on top of it.

I went down the basement and after a few tentative pokes into precarious piles of soon-to-be treasures (none of which contained a crock pot), I managed to narrow down my search to the most likely area where it might be buried (FYI: Zone #38.7b). Sure enough, there it was - hiding under a couple of moving blankets, an old jacket and a box of toys that the kids haven't played with in the last twenty years (which we're keeping anyway - just in case).

So I dragged the crock pot out of the basement and did my best make it presentable, if not usable, by scrubbing it several times in near scalding water.

Next, Sam and I had to decide what to cook.

Sure, we probably could have cooked something from our freezer, but this would have involved chipping away at the tundra in hopes of finding something food-like and trying to figure out what the object actually was (or, more appropriately, what it had been). Even if that were possible, which is unlikely, we would have been wasting our time.

It's pretty much guaranteed that whatever we might find, would have freezer burn all over it - a result of having spent decades under the ice of my non-frost free freezer. So I decided that, like usual, it was better to leave that stuff undisturbed (except for when I cram in more, soon to be forgotten, soon to be unidentifiable, food in front of it).

Instead, as with most of our meals, we decided to let the grocery store sale flyer dictate what we would be cooking. Thankfully, the store had roast beef on sale. We both like roast beef but past experience has taught me that the beef from this particular store sometimes tasted less "beefy" than it should, having only a "beef-like" quality about it.

Since we were cooking this in the crock pot, I decided it really didn't matter. We would be shoving in so much other stuff, it was bound to come out tasting nearly edible, no matter what.

Now we had a game plan. We made a list of our preferred ingredients, checking to see what we already had (which, as it turned out, was only the essentials: onions and garlic). Everything else went on the grocery list.

After our return from the grocery store (where we bought everything on our list - as well as a bunch of other stuff ) - it became apparent that we would have to slightly alter our regular routine.

When it comes to crock pot cooking, Sam and I usually do all the prep work the night before, then we stick the crock pot in the refrigerator for the night, and I take it out the next the morning and let it cook for most of the day. But it had been a busy day so we didn't have the time do any of the prep in advance - which was just as well because, much like the freezer, there was no room in the refrigerator to fit in the crock pot.

So, Sam and I did the prep work early Sunday morning. Like usual, I cut up the onions and the "beef" (somewhere along the line, we decided to go from a roast to beef stew). Sam, with periodic guidance, did the rest.

Sunday evening was chilly again so it was good to have a nice, hot meal. That's something else I like about the fall - being able to cook together and being able to enjoy it together, when we're all done.

Before

After

A Sunday Stroll

The summer has been filled with hot, humid and wet weather so the regular walks that Sam and I were going on, came to an abrupt end sometime around the beginning of August. We would get out from time to time but with nowhere near the regularity we would like - for both our physical, as well as our mental health.

Finally though, it was a beautiful day on Sunday. For the first time in what seems like forever, Sam and I went for a walk along the Canalside Rail Trail. It was kind of surprising how quiet the place was. Usually the place is pretty busy.

Off to the right, in the picture above, is a small water park and playground, and beyond them are a couple of ball fields and basketball courts and a picnic area. There's plenty to do, even if you don't want to go for a walk, and usually there are plenty of people doing it. But on Sunday, there were only a handful of people around. Not sure why that was, especially considering the weather as so nice.

Also missing was the family of geese that had been around for most of the summer. Usually, they occupied the patch of land between the river and the walkway. They tended to keep to themselves as long as we kept to ourselves - each of us pretending that the others weren't there.

The last time we saw the geese was weeks ago, during one of our, by then, infrequent walks. The young ones had grown to a point where they were nearly indistinguishable from their parents. The only giveaway was in how the parents would still hover over them if it looked as if someone might approach, or if it looked like the no longer little-ones might be heading into danger.

It seems early for the geese to have left for the season - especially with the weather still being so warm. It's hard to believe that winter will be approaching in a few short months, but if the coming months go by a fast as the ones before them, winter will be here all too soon.

Hopefully, Sam and I will get out more and more, once the weather turns cool, but before it turns cold. And hopefully we'll be able to see that family of geese, at least one more time - before they head away.

Today's Brief Comment

There are few things more depressing than going to visit an old friend, only to find their house abandoned.

Tonight's Music Video

I posted this song years ago but I think that particular video has long since been taken down. Here's another of the same song...



If you have a few minutes, you can read some excerpts from an interview with Sam Baker here. If you have about forty-five minutes, you can listen to the entire interview at the same link. It's from the broadcast where I first found out about him - and where I first heard this, and some of his other songs.

This Year's Visit to the Fair

As with the Fair Parade, it’s also time for our annual visit to the Fair. With the exception of one recent year, we went to the fair on Saturday morning, just like always.

I’m not sure what was going on but boy, the Fair sure seemed to be sparse this year.

I don't know why this was. Unlike at the parade, it didn’t rain - at least not when we were there. Granted, we get there pretty early, but even still…

And it wasn't just the crowds (or lack of them) that were thin, it was pretty much everything. Usually, the entries in the various buildings, whether they be flowers or produce, are crowding each other out. But not this year. This year, there were a lot of empty spaces.

I would attribute this to an overly wet growing season, which produced poor crop yields - and this may indeed be part of the problem - but it wasn’t just confined to agriculture. Upstairs, where they have the craft, photograph and art entries, it was also pretty sparse. Maybe too many creative people were too depressed by all the wet weather to be creative.

One good thing about this “thinning of the Fair” situation was that, when it came walking through the two buildings, where various vendors set up their displays, it was also pretty pathetic (at least, in terms of quantity of vendors. I have no comment on the quality of the vendors.) This meant that I needed to avoid eye contact with fewer people - so that was pretty good.

Speaking of these vendors, I noticed that even though there were fewer of them, of these, there seemed to be an overpopulation of bathroom re-outfitters. I didn’t know this was such a growth industry. I wonder if they knew this. Do these vendors set up at the Fair thinking that they’re going to be the only ones - and then get all pissed-off when they see that there’s a roomful of other bathroom re-outfitters? Do they badmouth the competition to any poor soul who isn’t smart enough to avoid making eye contact?

Anyway, along with everything else, there also seemed to be fewer rides this year. Here’s a couple of photos I took while riding the Ferris Wheel. The first one is from a few years ago, the other one was taken this year...

Not This Year

This Year

See? Night and day! (Get it? My next show's at eleven. Tell your friends.) It's a little hard to tell from these pictures (because of the night and day thing) but take my word for it, there were fewer rides.

We don't go on a lot of rides anymore (though this year, Helaina went on the Ferris Wheel with me, Sam went on the merry-go-round and Sam and Helaina both went on the bumper cars together) so from that perspective, having fewer rides is not that big of a deal. But to me, the Fair is about families being together and little kids having fun - and that's what, to me, the rides represent.

Once again, we went to the pig races. The Fair has had these pig races for years and years, but we didn't start watching them until two, maybe three years ago. (Naturally, this was at Sam's request.)

Though it would be hard to top the racing pig show from a few years ago, it was still a pretty good show. How this pig racing outfit compares to all of the other racing pig shows out there, I have no idea.

I have no funny story to tell about the pig races this year. There was one thing that happened which I thought was kind of nice, and I started to write about it. But it ended up taking so much explanation to set it up - and then there was no particular punchline - it even made me say, "What was the point of all of this???" Consider yourself spared.

To try to make amends for your bitter disappointment (over missing out on that non-exciting story - not this entire post,) I will instead share with you a few non-exciting fair photos...

Here's another photo of Sam taken from the second floor of the Round House. In case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure that Sam's not hiding a piece of stolen fruit behind his back. (Now, if that were me...) Just kidding,Fair Committee.

After visiting the Round House and a couple of the other buildings, we headed over the the Baby Barnyard. The fact that Sam fed a couple of the animals and risked the possibility of getting any baby animal saliva on his fingers, is pretty remarkable. This would have been unheard of a few years ago (no matter how cute the animals were).

Here's one taken as we walked down the fun packed midway (see previous years worth of photos - which look almost exactly the same).

After walking/running through the two "Gauntlet of the Vendors" buildings (soon to be renamed, "Gauntlet of the Bathroom Re-Outfitters"), we rewarded ourselves, like usual, with our traditional brunch, consisting of ketchup with some French fries on the side.

Here's another photo, this one taken approximately thirty seconds later.

After Helaina and I climbed onto the Ferris Wheel, I noticed this tool bag sitting on the deck on the opposite side. Near as I can tell, it seems to consist of a rusty chain, a short piece of rusty pipe, a couple of rusty bolts, and what looks like maybe a hacksaw.  I'm not sure what bothers me more - that this might be a collection of parts which fell off of the ride. Or that these might be the ride operator's most treasured possessions - and he keeps them close by, "just in case."

Here's another photo taken from the Ferris Wheel - this one looking in the opposite direction of the photo up above. Two things about this. First, there way fewer rides than in years past (if you don't believe me by now, then I give up trying to convince you). And second, see that little green arrow over to the right?  That's where we ate the ketchup and fries (in case you were still thinking about them since viewing the photo above).

Here's a few photos of Helaina and Sam on the bumper cars. There was a young girl in one of the cars that, for the life of her, couldn't get her car to go - and therefore, she spent most of the ride either crying, or getting slammed into by all of the other cars, and crying. It brought back memories of when the exact same thing would happen to me - only, it was usually just my brother doing the slamming. (Out of respect to her and out of respect to me not wanting to get sued, she is not in these pictures.)

Finally, here's a final picture from the pig show - this one is taken of this year's "Swifty" as he/she gets the hell out of the water.

So, that's it for now. Come back again next year, when I will likely have photos of the exact same events, and repeat everything I just said, all over again.