I'm just going to say it--more than anything right now, I just can't wait for this election to be over. If one side wins, my hope is the media can finally chill out a little and the national mood starts improving (or at least, perhaps a different group will be complaining--at this point any change seems good), and if the other side wins, I guess we just hunker down for four more years of division, hope for a COVID miracle, and invest in mental health care for more than half the country, because a lot of people are going to need it. Either way, I am BURNED OUT. Everything even remotely political online elicits venomous posts from either side. I posted something the other day with a different perspective that I thought was interesting and might be helpful for a certain group that was struggling with a particular issue, and even when I requested that people not comment if the issue wasn't a particular struggle for them, of course I got dissenting comments from people that had to put in their two cents. I only try to comment on others' posts if I feel like I can add a different perspective, and I try very hard to base it either on straight-up facts or on my personal experience. And even then there are people that attack me. I'm so sick of polarization, of assumptions, of generalizations, and of anyone who presents the extremists on either side as representative of the bulk of the party. Those things only create more division and destroy any possible common ground to build off of. This should be a quest to improve our country, and there isn't only one way to do that. That's why there's division--because both sides think they have the "right" way. However, the solution is more likely to be in between, and it's more likely to happen if both sides can compromise enough to get some of what each side wants. With a completely split country, it's probably better if we're all a little happy than one side being totally happy and one side miserable, you know? But no one seems willing to do that, and it's exhausting. And dare I say--even though I dislike nearly all politicians (my mother-in-law is a good one, and I know there are others, but it gets harder to find the higher up you go)--that this is the knock on having a businessman in office instead of a politician. Businessmen go for the win at all costs. Politicians, by nature, at least used to be the ones who schmoozed and tried to keep everyone happy. How they went about that wasn't always the best, but they at least understood that keeping the majority of constituents happy was not only key to staying in office, but usually better for the community. It's only when ego and dominating the other side (long past the election) becomes more important that things start to implode, and I think that's part of what's happening now. So, not only do I hope the next few weeks go quickly, I hope that the result is decisive and quickly agreed upon so we can just move on and face the next four years.
In the meantime, self-preservation takes a lot of forms. Staying away from media, trying to scroll quickly through Facebook to find the "good" stuff, escaping reality wherever possible, and seeking out the good little things in life are all "musts" currently. Last Friday was a shockingly beautiful day. After many days of cool and often cloudy weather (not to mention a windstorm), Friday was warm and sunny. I cut out of work a little early (don't worry, I checked my email again after) to go for a pre-dinner bike ride. I desperately wanted to ride along the canal to see how the leaves looked from that perspective. For many years I would drive home from work over the canal, past the bike path, and wondered how the gorgeous fall leaves looked from down there. This past summer I finally figured out how to get to that part of the path, and I really wanted to go back in the fall. But cold weather bike riding isn't ideal, and the opportunity just hadn't presented itself since the leaves changed. But Friday I finally did it. It was definitely a cool ride.
Gorgeous reddish-orange leaves in Greece Canal Park
Such a nice, peaceful ride and lots of color!
This is one section of the canal path I used to admire from afar. You can just see the elevated highway to the left.
Closer to the overpass here...such gorgeous color!
Even with less color in this section, it was peaceful and pretty.
I rode past this spot in the spring and figured I needed an "after" picture with the fall color. This is a different angle than the one I posted on the blog then, but I couldn't resist the colors in this one. Through that bridge you can see the downtown Rochester skyline.
I thought the graffiti was an interesting contrast to the peaceful view beyond it.
Such a pretty reflection.
Looking back at fall colors from under the bridge
It was a great 12-mile ride and it was nice to get back out there even if my legs weren't too happy about it. I can tell I haven't done much vigorous exercise beyond the elliptical lately--mostly because I'm trying to rest my suspected high hamstring tendinopathy issue. Probably about time to try for one more short run before confirming rest doesn't help and calling the chiropractor and getting some things checked out.
Saturday morning was another gorgeous one, although the winds were once again picking up. I took a walk in the yard for the first time in a few days, mostly to check my garden. The neighbor's tree, which is stunning some years and a bit more blah during others, is shaping up nicely! It's so bright in person!
I finally gave up on the last remaining cucumbers in my garden and pulled the last viable cuke and mostly dead vines out. There are still a few zucchinis trying to grow--albeit very slowly--so those stayed for now. My tomato plants got snacked on by a deer a week or so ago, but they are still massive and there are a ton of tomatoes ready or coming. I am not using many right now, though, so until we get a frost, there they stay!
Here are the two cute porch pumpkins we got last week at Stokoe...
I observed in my social media post that I never used to like the warty ones, but they have grown on me with age--probably not coincidentally! The flawed, funky ones are more fun!
My zinnias are still hanging in there. The backyard ones are mostly tiny but they're still alive, and my porch ones have slowed down but are still blooming. The older ones seem to be lasting forever, too, so they're still pretty. This one shot off the same stem as my favorite watermelon-colored, frilly one (the first flower in this post), and it's nearly as pretty.
Friday and Saturday both felt like a funny intersection of summer and fall. Warm weather, sun, and outdoor activities mixed with early sunsets, blustery winds, and the continuous evolution of plants and foliage as the seasons move along. It makes me sad to see my summer labors of love start to die off, but I guess it's also nice to get a break from the constant care of them! The shorter days are also a bummer, though I've settled nicely into jeans weather. And in a year with so much sameness, I guess any change is sort of refreshing in its own way. I'll admit I had a moment this morning where I was vacuuming my dining room and realizing that in only another month and a half I'll be putting Christmas tree #2 up in that spot, even though it feels like I was just taking it down. We had about two months of "normal" post-tree time this year before we went into this holding pattern, and I guess it just seems like we can't be back to the holidays again so soon because we never did so many of the yearly rituals that usually mark the passage of time each year. And before we know it, it'll be a full year of "wait-and-see" and this weird alternate reality. I will say our current reality is a much more manageable one than what we dealt with from March until sometime in June, and there are even upsides to it, shockingly. This is at least sustainable, at least for a while, but I still struggle with what our holidays might look like and what kind of risk we will be taking (or what risk we'll be encouraging older relatives to take) by gathering. I lost uncles within a few weeks of Christmas two years in a row over the past three years, and I can't say I want to have a repeat due to COVID this coming year. It's still scary, even if the virus isn't appearing as strong or deadly right now. It only takes one case to start a domino effect, and I would never forgive myself if I was part of that. So, I'm still not sure what lies ahead there.
In the meantime, we'll make the most of what good weather and outdoor activities still remain. And after my morning walk around the yard on Saturday, Carter and I spent the afternoon on a great fall adventure to enjoy the summer-like day. Stay tuned...
I don't know what the deal is right now, but it feels like it's been about a month since Carter and I took our little nature walk last week. And I kid you not, when I was uploading pictures and videos last night, I had to think for a second to realize that the bulk of pictures in this post actually just happened the previous day. Between work, school, society, and normal household stuff, I guess it's a lot to process these days.
It ended up being a pretty great weekend as a whole, but it was the end to a tiring week, mostly due to work and ongoing annoying political stuff--both out in the world and invading life on social media via arguments and general differences of opinion. I honestly cannot wait until this election is over, but I do worry what's waiting on the other side, regardless of the outcome. Friday itself ended up being crazy--work was exhausting, a local famous lawyer died in a small plane crash, President Trump and his wife got diagnosed with coronavirus, and all the political stuff just had me on edge. So when this rainbow showed up while I was cooking dinner, it was much needed.
On Saturday morning, I had volunteered to go to work. I regretted it a bit when I had to drag myself out of bed, but it's been so long since I've seen people or been on campus that it seemed like a good excuse to get out of the house for something different. Normally it would have been Meliora Weekend, the epic reunion weekend that usually involves long days and a lot of fun, but it was canceled this year. Instead, there were swag giveaways to undergrads. Usually that's just a tiny part of the weekend, but it felt like a big deal this time around--especially for the event lead who started in January and never had much of a chance to get used to things before everything shut down. We'd never even formally met! In the end I didn't have to do much--mostly just standing around and helping out the student workers when needed--but it was nice to be out on campus and seeing colleagues and talking to students, which is always really interesting since they come from everywhere and usually have really fascinating career aspirations. It was a really chilly morning, but once the sun came over the building, it wasn't too bad.
Zoom in on this one. It's such a cool little spot on the quad, statue and all.
Fall color on Wilson Commons, designed by I.M. Pei
After my shift ended, I headed home to take Jacob to his basketball championship game. He's been pretty frustrated with this team, so I'm not sure if he was more excited to play or to be done with the team! We figured they wouldn't win--and they didn't--because they were playing a really good team, but Jacob made the most of his chances. He hit all of his shots, one three-pointer and two foul shots, despite not getting a lot of playing time. His team made a good comeback but it certainly doesn't help when one of your best shooters is on the bench down the final stretch! Now we're onto the next team, with some new challenges already! We'll see how that goes! But we did some takeout that night, and overall it was just a good, solid day of activity and a nice break from the monotony.
Last weekend had been exciting because were finally able to go back to church--well, Carter and I did, anyway. Jacob had basketball tryouts so he and Craig missed it. It was so good to be back, and the topic was on race and inequality, so it was a really amazing service. We had hoped to go again this week, but I didn't get a chance to RSVP in time. It worked out okay, though, because we ended up using our morning wisely and doing our annual Stokoe Farm visit! It wasn't the best morning - a bit chilly and overcast - but I was hoping it might mean the crowds wouldn't be too bad. Wishful thinking, but it was manageable. And of course, we had to do it all masked!
For whatever reason, we decided to do the corn maze this year. It looked foolproof enough based on the map!
Carter liked pretending to be a zombie emerging from the corn...
There was still so much corn on these stalks! All dried and funky, but sometimes you could find a giant, intact cob!
Ah, portrait mode, you're fun. He looks so imposing standing out from this shot!
Jacob kept turning away from us, and somehow we all ended up getting a little turned around. I exited at an "unofficial" exit, Craig and Carter came out another, and while we waited for Jacob, Carter hung out with the giant corn cob.
Jacob finally arrived! On to more fun!
Carter checked out the kid ropes course...
...and then it was time to shoot apples!
Always fun to see them splat on the bus!
There were some new animals this year in a different spot. There were camels...
...and wallabies!
Who knew I could be a chicken portrait photographer?
After a snack, the boys tackled the hay bale mountain...
I always liked taking pictures here, so I gave it a shot...
Turns out I got a better one, but I'm holding it for the Christmas card, I think. We don't have a lot to use this year, for obvious reasons!
There wasn't a sign on this one, but I'm pretty sure these were kangaroos (and not wallabies like the others). The wallabies jumped similarly, but these looked legit kangaroo-ish.
Watch them jump! So cool!
I also saw this ridiculously cute, tiny goat. It was probably barely more than a foot high. It had such interesting color and very intense silvery blue eyes!
And this donkey came right up to me when I walked over. We couldn't feed anything this year, so me and my phone were probably a disappointment.
The big slides are always a highlight, and fueled by our tasty snacks, we took on Billy Goat Mountain. I noticed this tiny weedy flower on the way up the hill. It's so pretty.
At the top of the mountain, there was a lovely view of some of the only color change. Oddly, lots of trees are a couple weeks ahead of schedule, but most of the area around the farm was greener than it usually is. But this patch (with pumpkins in a field in the foreground) looked beautiful.
We did a lot of sliding! We took turns holding apple cider slushies and sliding with the kids, and my body definitely knew it that night! On one of the races Craig did, Carter got an inadvertent head start!
Carter proved himself when he raced me, though!
I did the giant tube slide, too, but Carter chickened out after some kid jumped into the slide and busted a water bottle in his pocket. After letting a bunch of kids go down, it seemed dry enough, so I chanced it. I was just a little damp afterward, but nothing terrible--and totally worth the ride!
We grabbed some donuts and a couple decorative pumpkins to go before heading home for some football. Pumpkins to carve will have to wait for another day...or maybe just a stop at Wegmans this year since I rarely get much participation in the pumpkin carving and Wegmans is cheap and easy! Our normal indoor place canceled their activities, so it's either Wegmans, a roadside stand, or another farm market. There's one I've been eyeing up for years, but we'll see how it goes these next few weeks.
I'm hoping this week goes a little better but I'm already sitting here wondering how it's only Tuesday, so...probably not the start I was looking for. Trying to stay positive, though--some warmer weather is coming back and I'm desperate to do some leaf peeping this weekend after Jacob's game. Fingers crossed more fall fun is ahead!
Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day--one of the last three days of beautiful summery weather before it takes a turn early this week. Craig took Jacob to his basketball game, and I decided Carter and I were going to make the most of the day by going for a little walk. After some debate about where to go, I decided on Turning Point Park, which was actually (coincidentally) literally a couple minutes around the corner from Jacob's game. The park runs along the Genesee River just south of where it empties into Lake Ontario. I'd seen lots of intriguing pictures of it over the years and part of me had always hesitated to go by myself because it's technically in the city and I didn't know if there were more remote areas that might get unsafe at certain times of day. But I figured on a day like this, there would have to be enough people around--even though that degree of safety might also mean we had to stay masked at times.
The fall color was pretty apparent right as we arrived. There were a few trees like this one near the parking lot.
The path wound around high above the river before turning into a steep slope down.
The one section of trees across the way was gorgeous.
There is a long wooden walkway that meanders across the "turning point" section of the river. It's hard to tell in this picture but it curves to the left before curving back to the right all the way to the edge of the picture to head back on land.
There were a couple round areas that boats could tie up to that made great photo spots.
The water near the walkway was full of algae and lily pads. It was pretty gross but that area didn't get a lot of wake from boats so it was essentially standing water. I've never been there to know if it's always like that or if this was more than usual.
The "turning point" is actually a large section of water that's big enough for big freighters to literally turn themselves around. There is a giant concrete company barge that comes through this way frequently, and I've seen video of it turn here. I guess maybe it can go backward up the river for a bit to get to this point, but then it's just better to turn it around here? Regardless, it's quite the sight in the middle of an otherwise standard-looking river. The area across the way had some pretty foliage, and up the hill beyond it was a big house.
The walkway had sea grass or reeds of some sort on either side at one point, which made cool sounds in the wind and looked pretty neat when they appeared to stretch on forever.
We saw all sorts of interesting nooks along the way. I liked this one that looked like a little portal to a wooded hideaway.
This giant fungi ball was probably the size of Carter's head. A little creepy but cool.
As I was taking the fungus picture, Carter said, "Look, there's a snake!" For a second I thought he was kidding since he'd been talking to squirrels and making up stories as we walked. But no, there it was, a couple feet away from me!
We watched it slither up the hill away from us. He wasn't that big but I wasn't about to get too close!
There were a couple dirt paths that veered off the paved path, and at one I noticed this interesting spot a few steps in. Those are steel beams sticking out of a tree. It was hard to tell what they were from. There were train tracks just over a berm from here, so I wondered if there was some sort of railroad equipment here and somehow before whatever it was got dismantled, a tree grew around it. I've seen trees do that with fences, but this was really amazing to see.
The path had some really pretty twists and turns, and with the leaves changing and the sun shining, it was really scenic.
As we headed back there were a bunch of rocks right before the wooden walkway restarted, and I had Carter hop up.
I was excited about giving my new iPhone (Craig's hand-me-down) its first real test drive on this walk. Turns out the zoom isn't really any better than my old phone, but the portrait mode is pretty fun.
Note the new gap in Carter's teeth on the right side...another baby tooth down!
Since the zoom on the phone wasn't great, I was happy I brought my real camera (it's not obsolete yet!) when we started watching the birds. There was a whole section of birds at the turning point that were just hanging out in the water.
All those little dots in the water left of center are birds. They seemed unphased by the boats passing by.
I caught this cool pic of what I think is a gray swan flapping its wings.
Pretty sure this one is a blue heron...
There were also a lot of white swans. This one had its wings up in an interesting way as it swam.
Off in the distance (but sadly behind the trees when we were further down the river) was this big boat. It looked like it was once some sort of tour boat, like a booze cruise type of ship. Now it looks basically abandoned, but it's interesting that it's still in the water rather than drydocked.
Just had to get a selfie with my boy, who was a trooper for the 2.5 mile walk...
This picture really doesn't do it justice, but this was the steep walk back up to the path that led to our car. I know it just looks like a straight path curving off in the distance, but if you train your brain to see height here, it really was that high and steep. I felt a little bad for the dad we saw at the top who was pushing a double wide stroller in the opposite direction. I imagine it would be hard to keep control going down, and it would be a heck of a push to get it back up, even empty. Carter and I were both huffing and puffing a bit when we were done!
Back at the top there was a nice overlook view as well...
The balls on the power lines were actually one of the first things Carter noticed when we pulled in the parking lot. Sad to say there are enough helicopter searches for missing people along the river that those are a must-have.
We grabbed a treat on the way home (a $1 Freeze as usual) and headed back to meet up with Craig and Jacob, whose team won to earn a spot in the championship game next week. We decided to do a free-for-all dinner pick-up (with a stop at a beer store for something Craig wanted), and this was the gorgeous sky while we waited at one of our pick-up stops.
Pretty as it was, the hot pink ball of setting sun just before it was probably even more spectacular. I just never got to a good spot for a picture.
Anyway, even if Carter wasn't super excited about our outing, I had a great time with him and it was definitely the kind of afternoon I needed. Nice weather, pretty leaves, and some new scenery can work wonders!
