Now THAT Was a Weekend, Part 1 - Carter and Mom Day

Carter had a four-day weekend this weekend.  While I could technically work from home to keep an eye on him, I hate days like that and decided I wanted to take a day off to spend with him.  Jacob's new school doesn't do the extra day the Friday before Columbus Day, so he was particularly annoyed about having to go to school, and it had been a struggle to get him out of the house all week already.  Sigh.  But Carter and I had big plans!  I was definitely ready for a day off myself, especially after last week's busy weekend.  Of course, the weather had to be a bit uncooperative.  It's been a cold fall so far, and while we did get a couple warmer days this week, on Friday the temperature dropped into the low-50s.  Just in time for three days of outside activities...ugh.  But at least the rain wrapped up early that morning so our outdoor afternoon plans would still work.  

We got Carter's favorite, Domino's, for lunch at home, and then headed out to the east side of Rochester.  I wanted to go to Corbett's Glen.  I've seen a ton of pictures from various friends and decided it would be a good one for us, especially at this time of year.  It ended up being a pleasant two-mile walk despite the cool weather.  The colors weren't super impressive yet, but there were some really pretty trees. 

This tepee wasn't far from the entrance.  One of the cooler things was that some of the branches still had living leaves growing out of them. 

This tree was nearby.  I have no idea if this was a fungus or just a weird way that the tree grew.

Most of the trail was a bit boring and flat.  Not in a terrible way, but there weren't many interesting plants left and there weren't many notable areas that stood out.  There were a couple spots where it appeared there should have been water running through drainage ditches and pipes, but things have been really dry so those couldn't add any spice to the walk.   There was a spot with a memorial plaque that detailed the history of the area as a teenage hangout, with a few distinct areas where the kids would go--a "fort" built by a couple kids, some drainage pipes, and some open fields at the other end of the park.  I guess this park didn't actually exist until 1999, but the surrounding neighborhoods appreciated and preserved the public space for all those years.

This was the one challenging part of the trail.  It's hard to see the steepness of the slope, but it definitely got the heart pumping to go down and then up (and we had to do it on the way back, too!)!

As I said, some trees were better than others. 

This spot had a tree split down the middle...

...and it looked like the rest of it flopped down across some low ground into a perfect but precarious bridge.
 

We finally saw some interesting fungi...

...and finally made it to the waterfall at the far end of the park.  It was really pretty and peaceful.  

They make efforts to keep people away from the water to keep it clean.  We did go around one fence (pretty sure it was meant to be just passable) just to get a better view of the water's edge, but stayed out of the water.  It was really pretty with the fall leaves.

As we continued on, we found this fun log along the path.

The other highlight of the park is a tunnel under a railroad bridge.  Apparently Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession crossed over there, and there was a book hanging by a nearby park map that included old photos of the park.  I found this one that showed a view of almost the exact spot we were standing at, showing a vehicle coming out of the tunnel.

Nearby was a house that's stood there since the 1800s, and there was a miniature train track that I guess sometimes has a working miniature train.  Things definitely felt a bit frozen in time in that spot.

We thought it was appropriate for Carter to stand near the "C".

Carter did great with the walk--sometimes he gets a little impatient when there isn't a lot of scenery, but he was such a good buddy this time.  I think he was probably still a little relieved when we finally got back to the car, but part of that was because we were headed for a playground next.  It wasn't particularly close to where we were, but it's not that often we get to the east side so I figured it was worth the 20-minute drive south since we were already that far east.  We headed to a playground that multiple people had recommended to me, the Mendon Community Park Playground.  It was an old school wooden one that reminded me a lot of my school playground.

When I went to St. Matthew, we had a death trap of an awesome playground.  It was a series of wooden structures, and while they were fantastic, they had a lot of issues.  Splinters were the least of our worries, but it had those too.  There was a wooden structure with a fire pole, a floppy bridge, and a small but fast slide.  There were monkey bars that were high enough that they knocked the wind out of me when I once fell.  I was terrified when I couldn't breathe.  There was a tire climb that was probably the first piece to be completely dismantled, probably because the tires didn't hold up since kids pushed and pulled on them trying to make rough terrain for climbers.  There was also a set of tire swings with huge tractor tires held up by chains.  Those were the best...until the brackets loosened and fell and injured people.  Good thing that was before people got sue-happy, because I know those probably wouldn't have lasted as long as they did.  But that playground brought us hours of joyful recess play.  This one was generally in better shape, but there were spots where the wear-and-tear was evident and reminded me of my old playground.  Even still, this one was really impressive and artfully designed.  

This was a fun (but deceptively challenging) swinging platform.

The middle section below was like a big maze--lots of little steps down and up into little enclosed platforms.  I only banged my head once or twice chasing Carter into there.  

This part reminded me of my old tire climb, although that one was only one big spread of tires, maybe six tires wide by five tires high?  

We challenged ourselves on balance beams, Carter put on a little improv show on a stage-type seating area, and we finally checked out the tire swing that also reminded me of the old days.  The tire was smaller and there was only one, but I still definitely had some trust issues with the connection to the top beam!  We would spend our recess time spinning (right after lunch, ugh), but Carter just wanted to swing as high as possible.

While we were there, I realized we were in Mendon, home to Mendon Ponds, another place I have wanted to go.  We learned a little bit about Mendon Ponds and its glacier history at the science museum last spring.  I knew we didn't have time for much because we had an evening activity to get home for, but I decided a stop at one particular spot, Devil's Bathtub, was probably doable as a quick park-and-walk.  Sure enough, it worked out perfectly. 

It was a less than 10-minute drive and we parked right by the stairs down to the water.  They were steep and rustic and full of things that could take your feet out from under you, but we made it.  Near the bottom, this tiny mushroom was sticking out of the stairs.  Carter had a good eye!
 

While considering adding this as a stop, I recalled that I had seen others' pictures posted from here in previous years, and the leaves seemed a little ahead of other leaves at the time.  Sure enough, the colors down near the water were further along than anything else we had seen.  

We speculated on the source of the name.  I liked Carter's suggestion, that the dirtiness was from the dirty devil having taken a bath.  I speculated whether it was because of how the water was nestled in that spot.  The water really came right up to the edge of the land (with little visibility on drop-off) and it was hard to tell the depth at all because it was so dirty (I guess it's meromictic--the layers do not mix), so maybe it was dangerous to those exploring it?  In Googling it, I found another explanation for a different Devil's Bathtub somewhere else that it was the only water cold enough to cool the fires of hell.  Regardless, it was a cool little spot.

The boardwalk path was in good shape except for this one spot where it buckled significantly.  Just added to the charm, though.

It was so gorgeous in that spot, and I was happy we got to go at this time of year and see the leaves.  I wish we'd have had more time to explore, but I guess there's always another day.

After that, it was time to head home.  We still had one more thing to do that night!  It had already been a full, fun day, but we still had more!  And we were just getting started for the weekend!

A Random Week to an "Ever Better" Weekend

Looking back at my pictures from the last week and a half, I was struck with the randomness of it all.  I can't say we've had a lot happening, but I guess we've tried to make the most of the small moments!

A week ago last Friday, I went on a tour of the UR laser lab.  It's in the building next door to my office, so it was nice to finally see what was inside.  I've heard about amazing things coming out of there, and in fact two physicists with UR ties won the Nobel Prize a few years ago based on work done there.  While 95% of what was shared during the tour went completely over my head, it was really cool to know there are science people who thrive on this stuff and are working to find better ways to use lasers for lots of practical applications.

It's hard to see but there's a giant sphere under this structure that houses the target for the lasers in this room.  This is one of the most powerful lasers in the world, with just four beams.  There are a lot of amplifiers housed in tubes that get it to full power.  

This was leading to a different laser target in a separate space.  I believe this one had 60 laser beams, but the cumulative effect apparently still wasn't as powerful as the other one.  But each of those tubes contains a beam and amplifies it. 

You can see here a better view of what houses the target.  There's a sphere on the right and if you look close you can see numbered openings that let the lasers in from redirects all over the room.  Mind-boggling.

That weekend we managed to squeeze in one more mini golf outing before the weather went back down the tubes.  We still had the second game of BOGO passes we bought last summer for the courses down in Henrietta, and I wanted to use it before they changed the rules or something.  We played the course we didn't play last time.  The other one was more of a rustic mining theme, and this one was beautifully landscaped with a castle and (like our usual course) a giraffe.  It was a tough and questionably constructed course.  I think they must have once been sued for someone tripping over the course border, because there was an area on each hole (usually right behind the hole) where the edge was super shallow...and the ball popped out there every time, even with not much speed.  You can see it to Jacob's left if you zoom in below.  We stopped penalizing pretty quicky, but it was a challenge!

Those yellow flowers were so cool.

Maybe fall isn't so bad!

I basically had the game of my life and won.  Jacob and I were in heated competition until he blew one hole in particular and he ended up a handful of strokes behind.  Craig did not do well at all, and Carter--despite playing pretty well and hitting some awesome shots--was so discouraged.  As a whole he's not bad, but he always has a couple holes that he maxes out and those usually do him in.  I keep trying to remind him that I spent my entire childhood playing mini golf with actual golfers so I always lost by a ton.  It was discouraging, but look at me now!  Hopefully someday he sees a little more success, because he's actually not that bad considering his style is very casual--sometimes I don't think he even aims! 

Speaking of Carter, here's a random picture of him that I love!  This is from after I hung the finished diamond painting over my bed.  I was trying to get a picture of the finished product (and decide if it needed something flanking it on the sides) and he photobombed me!  But how could I not capture this moment--my bed is made and my son is adorable!  But how did he get so big?!

I swear the picture actually matches a bit more than this shows.  The rusty reds in the comforter match the picture well.  Still undecided what to do on the sides--not sure candles will work since there are already uplights just off the sides of the photos.

I had a second dahlia pop out last week, and it was lovely.  This was right after it opened.  I love how the petals are streaky! 

Here's how it looked later in the week.  The lighting is different but the pink had definitely filled in more.

Last week Carter and I watched together as the DART mission crash-landed a spacecraft into an asteroid to try to knock it off orbit in a test for when an asteroid might head toward earth.  It was neat to watch it live, and this was the view right before it crashed.  Look at that asteroid surface!

Not sure why the screen looks so blue, but it's pretty cool anyway.

Carter wasn't convinced at the beginning but got more interested as everything started coming into focus, and then he kept telling Craig and Jacob (who were not interested in coming upstairs) that they were missing out!  It was fun to share that with him, though.  I guess we still won't know for a bit if it was successful. 

I've been very lax about going out to the yard since we got back from Florida.  Part of it is the weather--it's been cold and rainy a lot of the time, and even when it's not raining, it's damp.  If it's not sunny, cool and cloudy isn't really motivating to get me outside, and now I'm just out of the habit.  But a frost was coming last week and I knew I needed to get out there to salvage the last round of tomatoes and whatever else was there.  I picked a bunch of beans and a few cukes (another giant one, ugh), plus probably a cup and a half of tomatoes.  I was shocked by some of the randomness happening in the yard.  My front variegated weigela bush had flowers (four months late), my hosta had more new flowers (the last ones were spent in probably early August), and those last two late-arriving hydrangea blossoms were still going strong.  I don't know how all of that was happening since it hadn't even been warm.  Usually that happens when it's been cool and then gets warm again.  We haven't really had much of that, so who knows.  But given all the rain, I found a couple of these. 

After the fun I had photographing a flower from below in the spring, I decided to do it with the mushroom, as I remembered ones like this tend to have a cool underside.  This one seemed to have been sampled by an animal or something, but it still turned out sort of cool.

Oh, and I also found another dahlia hiding back there in one of my pots.  Those plants did nothing all summer and then I finally got a little something--though not quite what was on the package!  Still pretty, though.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been sick since last Wednesday.  It got better late Wednesday night after the initial onslaught, to the point of just feeling like a normal cold, but it has varied quite a bit ever since.  I went from feeling functional on Friday, to my nose being a faucet Friday night, to almost normal Saturday--well, normal in that one sinus was quite blocked but the other was fine, so I could breathe through the good nostril without sounding sick.  I did the Netipot Sunday night, which made me feel almost normal through the night, but now the last couple days have been ramping up the sinus pressure again, without much luck in the nose-blowing department.  Tuesday night I took a Sudafed (nothing else seemed to do much, so I figured it was something new) and turned into a sneezy mess for a couple hours again, just like last Wednesday.  I sent a note to my doctor on Monday to see if they thought the one-sidedness was a sinus infection, and finally made an appointment for Thursday since Tuesday night was awful and the congestion is hanging in there.  I'm almost positive this is a sinus infection.  It's very reminiscent of my last one, from the focus on one sinus and the "wall" that seems to be in that one sinus, to the way it seems like it's getting better one day and goes right down the tubes the next.  I do not plan on letting this one go for two months, but let's see what happens!  Maybe I can get medicine in the meantime and then need to consider talking to the ENT again to see why this one-sided thing is happening and prevent more infections, because too many antibiotics aren't good.  I've already had two this year from my tick bite and from when my doctor thought my long COVID headache (or so it seems) was a sinus infection.  Either way, I'm over all of this.

Despite my illness, I had to work all weekend for Meliora Weekend.  In case I never mentioned it, "Meliora" is UR's motto and means "Ever Better", hence the title of this post.  The boys were off to Boston so I ended up allowing myself to be pretty solidly booked both Friday and Saturday.  Before I get into that, the boys' weekend was a little hectic due to some miscommunications and navigation failures, but Jacob's cold and injuries let up and he had a pretty decent weekend, including one nine-point game.  Carter was entertained by the arcade, and they made two trips to Wahlburger's (and brought me back souvenirs), so all in all not a bad trip for them.  Now a couple weeks off before we go on the big travel streak.

Meanwhile, back at home, I busted through some work projects Friday morning before spending my afternoon into the evening at the Eastman School of Music working registration.  It was a long shift, but in the middle of it I got to see 50th reunion alumni receive a special medallion gift, plus three special performances to close out the ceremony.  This marimba performance was absolutely riveting.  I was just fascinated by how beautiful the sound was in that space and how masterful the musicians were, each with two mallets per hand.  

There was a series of three piano performances with two people sitting at the same piano, which was lovely, and then the chorale came out and performed a couple songs. The first one was incredible--it sounded like an old hymn, but upon further investigation, it's actually a more modern spiritual that's only about 30 years old.  I absolutely adored it, though, and the talent singing it was insane.
 

Once my shift ended, it was right around sunset and I was greeted outside with the makings of a good one.  I walked across the street to where they had set up a tent for a special celebration for Eastman's centennial.  It looked so elegant, and the clear ceiling was perfect for the sunset!

Even the reverse view was lovely.  Note the fun crosswalks!  They even have a way to sometimes make them make music, ala the floor piano scene in "Big".

Back across the street, of course I had to stop in and see the Chihuly...again.  But I almost never get to see it at night--this was only the second time ever, I think, and the first time in probably five years--so I was excited to get some better pictures with it illuminated.  And it definitely did not disappoint.  

As I worked my way upstairs (there are three floors in that atrium), I noticed out the window that the sunset was getting even more colorful.  I couldn't believe my luck!  I had the space basically to myself with this amazing Chihuly and an incredible sunset!

The higher I went, the less I had to zoom, which meant better pictures.  And the darker it got outside, the whiter the lighter pieces looked.  There is a lot of gold in this chandelier, and I will say that the first few pics I took looked more like the white had gone yellow, but the more contrast they had as the ceiling skylight got darker, the whiter everything became, which I think honestly just looks cleaner.  

While I was up on the third floor, I took a little detour and peeked into Kodak Hall.  Again, it's been years since I had been in there.  I didn't linger since they were preparing for a concert, but I did snap a pic.  That chandelier is amazing, as is the gold piece above it on the ceiling.  It's just such elegance all around.

By the time I came back out, the sunset was even better.  

And on my way back down I had to take my favorite shot--as gorgeous as the whole piece is, this bottom view just gets me every time!

I could have stayed there all night, but the sunset was getting even better!  By the time I got out there, it looked like this!

I just missed getting a different picture of it on the drive home.  It had turned into one very orange stripe, one very yellow (almost greenish) stripe, and a stripe of gray clouds.  I just couldn't quite get a good spot to capture it, but what a show the sky put on.  I probably said, "Are you kidding me?" about a dozen times throughout that whole escapade, like how did I get so lucky to keep seeing even more amazingly photogenic scenes?  I mean, the sunset alone would have been great, or the centennial setup or the Chihuly, but to have it all happening together and the sunset continuing to get more interesting?  It was incredible!

The next day I had another four-hour Eastman shift followed by a three-hour reunion dinner shift.  This time I got to poke my head in on a Brass Cavalcade concert, which was definitely a new one for me to see something with nearly all brass instruments (save for a little percussion).  This concert hall has many similarities to Kodak Hall, but is much more intimate.  The wood paneling and the classic light fixtures are enchanting. 
  

I ate some cold pizza in my car, as I drove over to the River Campus.  I worked my three-hour shift at a 25th anniversary dinner (three-year preview for me--haha) and had the pleasure of catching up with a colleague who's also a neighbor.  I had sort of seen her around a few times, and then we confirmed over the summer that we live around the block from each other.  Her house is right on my mile walking loop.  We also figured out that she was an Amerks intern for the ticket department back when I still worked there.  Such a small world!  While we were waiting for the dinner to start, I caught some color on the edge of the Hirst Lounge windows out of the corner of my eye, and sure enough, amazing things were happening outside again!

I ran out to the quad to catch an unobstructed picture, too.  I mean, seriously?  Two nights in a row?  I just love this one with all the balloons!

On Sunday I had a lengthy to-do list considering I still wasn't feeling fantastic.  I watched church from my bed, cleaned the bathroom, went to the Hilton Apple Fest (first time it happened since COVID) on an unsuccessful quest for lunch (sold out of the stuff I wanted) and glass pumpkins (vendor wasn't there), made a stop at Kohl's, then back for a lot of vacuuming before the boys got home.  I made us all dinner after that, but ran out of energy before I got the Halloween decor out.  It was a pretty busy day all things considered, which obviously made Monday a bit of a challenge.  But it's a short week to be off with Carter on Friday and a half day with both boys on Monday.  And we have a fun evening planned on Friday, my family's Oktoberfest on Saturday, and hopefully off to the pumpkin patch Sunday.  Fall is apparently not for the weak--so hopefully I'm feeling better soon so I can enjoy it to the fullest!