unlocked
I'm happy to have left LiveJournal for regular posting. But I miss one features: friends-only posting. The only way to do that on my blog would be to provide people with their own usernames and passwords, which is just silly.
So this summer, which has been difficult, has seen a number of draft posts written and discarded for just such a reason. (This is really why I've not been updating the blog...because I can't figure out how to say what it is that I want to say.)
And now, despite the difficulties we've had, I don't want summer to be over. I am not ready for fall. I need more time in shorts; more time at a pool or at a beach; more time being warm. I definitely need more time to visit with people. (It's only slightly ironic that I completely forgot about Valpo's homecoming this weekend. 
)
But fall is here. Schools are in session. Lives are busy. The autumnal equinox was this week and the days are already so much shorter. As a result outdoor evening activities are becoming less and less frequent. I just feel like I'm losing time while losing the light.
So it goes.
preschool
Nate started preschool back on September 9th and he's been going two days a week in the morning. Near as I can tell, everything is going really well.
It started off with a few tears, mostly because the week before, we all had visited the school in the evening, and he thought we'd be staying again. On his first day, after he started to cry a bit, his teacher quickly shepherded him off to a distraction. I understand it is important for her to maintain some semblance of order on the first day and I understand that getting any child into the routine can be good for everyone, but I didn't get to say goodbye to him before he was hauled away. It's silly to be bothered by this, I know, and yet I still am.
But there were no problems after the first day, and now he can barely be contained in his drive to get into the classroom to begin his day.
I said "near as I can tell" before, only because I'm pretty sure he's being trained by CIA agents in proper techniques to resist divulging sensitive information if captured. I don't really know what he is actually doing at school. Questions about his day, his activities, etc either go unanswered or are returned with a very teenage-sounding "nothin'." I realize this is fairly common for preschoolers and so I just roll with it. I'm grateful that the teachers send home a little newsletter at the end of the week so we have some idea of what has been going on.
Every once in a while little snippets make their way out: he'll start singing a song we've never heard before or he'll say some series of sentences that we've never uttered. 
helloheather and I will just look at each other and smile.
Today is class picture day for Nate. And that by itself is something that amazes me.
mulch to do
Saturday I started working on leaf clean-up at 9:30 am. I finished at 2:30 pm with zero breaks. This included cleaning the gutters and sweeping piles of leaves off the roof.
Last year we decided to use the leaves from the ginkgo tree as a mulch-substitute for part of the landscaping in the back. It was not a perfect solution, but it did help keep the weeds down early on in the season. For the rest of the leaves, I spent time each weekend mulching them into the yard. However, even with keeping on top of them we have so many leaves that I was left with spots on the grass that had too much leaf matter and, as a result, dead spots in the spring.
This years weather, being as strange as it has been, prevent us from doing pretty much anything with the leaves. There still are trees in the area with most of their leaves on them (if you can believe that) and those that did fall remained wet thanks to our frequent rains at the end of October and into November.
So, instead of mulching the leaves and leaving the remains on the grass I decided to mulch and then sweep them up, in order to cover the landscaped area in the back. And, for the most part, the idea worked. (At least so far.) Almost all the leaves from the yard fit onto the landscaped area. Now, there are a couple rather thick areas, I'll admit, but I think with some turning-over in the spring I think we'll be set.
Of course, with mulching all the leaves, we didn't have anything to burn. So, even though this took 5 hours on Saturday, it was better than 8 to 10 hours of standing around trying to get semi-damp leaves to burn...
With luck, this process each fall will keep us from having to buy wood mulch (another 18 cubic yard load? no thank you) for a long time.
lunch today
Lunch on Monday was outside on a picnic bench in a preserve of restored prairie while warm winds playfully moved around me.
I liked the shadow of my banana stem on the table.
She can be all four seasons in just one day
When we left Indy, it was partly cloudy, breezy, and a wonderful 61 deg F. By the time we got to Itasca (at 290 and 355) it was 38 deg F and the falling hail was almost completely horizontal.
autumnal
Today is the first day of Autumn and the September Equinox. While the days will continue to become shorter and shorter, the rate of change should peak today. (I hope I'm right about that last part... someone please tell me if I'm not.)
It's a long, downward trend until December 21st, so I feel the urge to capture what's left of my evenings. I want to continue our tradition of making sure we head outdoors on the solstices and equinoxes, if only to a park or the bike path. Nothing fancy, I just feel like it would be a nice tradition for our family to have.
So, here's to the autumnal equinox, the harvester of light that you are. May you bring a fall of cool, crisp, and still sunny days. 
Random bits for November
1) Yesterday afternoon was spent trying to mulch the leaves that continue to fall on our lawn. Last weekends mulching was cut short due to rain, so this week was a little more difficult. Our mower doesn't do a particularly good job of mulching (due in part, I think, to the fact that the mulching aspect is an add-on, not the default behavior) and so I need multiple passes to take care of things.
Yesterday, however, was something new. Yesterday it started snowing. So there I was, hat and gloves and scarf and winter coat mowing my lawn in a snow shower. It was a...unique...experience to say the least.
2) Speaking of the weather, now that it is cold somewhat consistently I've found that my appetite has grown. I am hungry more often and I crave all the fatty and greasy things that will probably kill me. In fact, right now if I could just wrap a block of lard with a few layers of bacon and then batter and deep-fry the thing, I'd pretty much be in heaven. Maybe throw a couple eggs on the side. Oooh, eggs...scotch eggs...oh man. I'm hungry again...
Sorry, drooling a bit on the keyboard...
3) Speaking of keyboards, I was typing on mine this morning when I noticed some bits of red showing up on a couple of the right-hand keys. "Strange" I thought and discovered that a couple of my fingers had blood on them. "What the...?" was said out loud. There was no cut on my fingers or hand and so, while trying to figure out what part of me was bleeding, I absentmindedly touched my right ear. Sure enough, my fingers came away with fresh blood. A quick check of the mirror showed an inch-long scratch on the front-top part of my earlobe that seems to have appeared out of nowhere. I have no memory of scratching my ear and have no clue how this happened, but there it was, bleeding away.
4) Speaking of fingers, mine are cold. The building that my company leases space in turns off the environmental controls after 7 pm on weekdays and entirely on the weekends. With the holiday, the heat has been off for four days and even now at 3:30 pm, it's not very warm in here. I think it's time for another cup of coffee.
Let’s talk about Monday…
So, let's sum up what happened yesterday:
1) I forgot my key-card at home. Not a big deal but annoying to get around the office until I could get a temporary.
2) For the first time ever I forgot my tie at home. Very embarrassing. I was able to borrow one that came down to the middle of my crotch, but at least I wasn't sent home to get a tie (which would have been a 4-hour round-trip ordeal).
3) The three Hi-8 video tapes I need to have converted to digital files (for a particularly high-profile training DVD I am creating) appear to have failed completely. Attempts to get them to play on the equipment at the video conversion vendor have resulted in lots of visual static and no sound. These tapes are less than 7 years old. The company has at least 100 such tapes in storage and I fear we will lose a lot of them.
4) A 21 oz bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper (2/3 of which had already been consumed) proceeded to burst forth and spray my shirt, pants, and the steering wheel and dash of my car when I attempted to open it.
5) Our venerable Canon A80 has had power problems since returning from having the CCD repaired/replaced. The problems were intermittent and I thought perhaps they were related to bad batteries. Yesterday I discovered that the rocker/selection button on the back is stuck down on the right-side. This is a curious problem as it would suggest the camera has been damaged in some way. However, the far more problematic discovery yesterday was that the camera won't turn on unless you first open and close the battery door. This needs to be done each and every time you wish to use the camera. The A80 was working fine on Friday and never left the camera bag all weekend.
This is most distressing because helloheather and I certainly were not planning on spending any money on camera equipment any time soon. In addition, having just been repaired, the camera was (despite the intermittent power issues) performing wonderfully. Canon not only fixed the CCD but replaced the lens assembly giving the camera a whole new lease on life. The zoom was smooth and quieter than before the repair and I was marching my way towards 40,000 total exposures. Clearly we have had our moneys worth with this camera, I just wish we could have squeezed out a little bit more.
Clearly yesterdays problems, even cumulatively, were minor annoyances at best. There are far worse things that were happening to other people and there almost always are. I kept this in mind as I arrived home a few minutes early and was able to spend the last bit of rapidly fading light outside with Nate crunching fallen leaves and investigating all the yard had to offer. We came inside with cool cheeks and empty stomaches and were warmed and fed. A lot of people did not have those luxuries last night and so I remain thankful for mine.
soon
yet no sign of it
in the cidada's chirp
-Basho
Thank you Apocaplops for bringing this haiku to my attention.
Productive Weekend
Friday after work I headed down to my parents to drop off 2 old computers and a ton of old hardware. They, in turn, took the stuff down to St. Charles for electronics recycling. It felt good to get it out of the house.
Saturday morning I raked and swept leaves for the first time this season. Given that helloheather will not be able to help this fall, I've made it my goal to stay on top of the lawn care as much as possible. Letting the leaves go too long makes for a very long fall.
After lunch, tinyprayers and I went out for a bit of photography at Moraine Hills State Park.
Neither one of us had been to the park, and so we set out on a 3.2 mile loop around one of the lakes. A ton of centipedes and caterpillars were spotted as well as one snake sunning itself on the limestone path. With a little encouragement it slithered off into the grass where it was safe from the many bicycles roaming the area.
On Sunday I was able to clean out the gutters on the west-side of the house. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to get the east-side ones done.
Being able to visit with family, working on cleaning up the basement a bit, getting yard-work done, and even making time for some photography made for a very nice weekend.
You Are Beautiful (Redux)
You Are Beautiful - 2006
Sunlight streaming through a second floor window creating shadows on the staircase wall. Capturing this image through the front window creating a frame of reflections.