Head for the Mountains

I didn’t think we were going to try to do any leaf peeping this year, but after talking to Jen a few minutes ago I think we are going to head North and try to do some leaf peeping tomorrow.

I just put the digital camera’s battery on the charger. One of the film cameras is loaded with a roll of black and white film. That won’t do. I need to put some color film into the other camera and then maybe take them both. Two films and a digital make three cameras. Yeah, that works for me.

Chances are we won’t stop anywhere and all of our peeping will be from inside the moving car, but that doesn’t matter. Turning a day trip like this into a photo-trip is nice and all but the real point of it is to just spend some time with the love of my life. That’s the real treat.

Frost

I am working from home this morning, but my wife Jen is not. She left the house at about 8:00am. I walked her to the door and watched her go. When we first looked outside we saw it.

There was ice on the car.

October 15, 2024… the first instance of winter frost.

Damn it.

I hate winter.

Too Early

What day is it? Who knows. It’s Thursday, right?

Is it too early to start thinking about plans for the weekend? It is the height of leaf peeping season here in New England. We thought about going up to the mountains for a look last weekend but we decided against it. If we go this weekend the traffic will be insane. I checked the weather for our area and Saturday looks great while Sunday looks rainy and crappy.

I don’t know. We’re trying to plan a visit to the kids but that won’t be for another couple of weeks. We have a couple of work days to get through before we figure anything out and maybe we will just hang out at home. I don’t know. After a bunch of day trips on our week off/staycation last month I just have the road trippin’ bug.

We will figure it all out soon enough. Stay tuned.

No Word Yet

No word from the guitar shop today. The guitar looked finished in the pics he put on the bookfayce yesterday but I couldn’t really tell. There was likely some finishing work that needed to happen (file down, polish, adjust the new frets maybe?) that I don’t know anything about. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. I can’t pick it up on Wednesday as I’ll be in the office. I don’t even know if he opens his doors on any other days. His website books appointments on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Let’s see what happens, okay?

Two things that I need to do today. One, call a plumber to look at a leak in the old bathroom. Two, I have a doctors appointment after work. I also have 3.5 hours left in my work day. I am just wrapping up lunch now.

Harry is coming home this weekend. How awesome is that? Looking forward to having him around. Also really looking forward to Thanksgiving. The actual holiday we will travel to my sisters’. The following Saturday we will have Thanksgiving Part II (electric turkey boogaloo) with the kids and Jen’s folks. I am really excited about both. Not that I can eat like I used to, but I’ll still love every minute of both days.

When are we going to go Christmas tree shopping? We usually try to do that while the kids are home for Thanksgiving, but I don’t know how the schedules will work out this year. We’ll have to figure that out too.

Have I mentioned that I am absolutely freezing today? Stupid cold. Stupid winter (even though we’re still over a month away from the first day of winter, it’s basically winter already).

Okay. Lunch break is over. Get back to work, Robert. You have some custom code to deliver. Get to it.

Self Raking

The leaves in our backyard essentially rake themselves. If only the wind would blow them away from the house and into the woods instead of blowing them all right up against the house. Oh well.

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There are still more leaves to come too. I don’t think I am going to have time to get to much of it this weekend, so they are going to be hanging out for a while. Ugh.

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In other news, Candle.

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I took this with my DSLR through Dad’s old zoom lens, Gemini 1:4.5 80-200mm. Aren’t they nice?

Monster!

I had to step outside today to take out the trash and I saw this hideous monster. How can we live in a world where an evil like this exists?

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Also, you’d think that living in the woods in New England would mean we’d have some cool fall colors. Not really. In our back yard the leaves go from green to ugly yellow to dead on the ground. Oh well.

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Jen and I talked about going leaf peeping up on the Kanc this weekend. It’s probably a smidgen too early, but it will be a fun day if we go.

RIP Mouse… Jerk

Well that was fun.

I logged into a video conference call at 10:00am. At 10:02am a mouse tried to climb the floor lamp next to my desk. It almost got to the top before falling off. It was equal parts startling and freakin’ adorable.

A mouse. I mean, it is that time of year, right? The weather is getting colder and the critters are looking for warmth. I get it. It’s not surprising.

This mouse was either an arrogant asshole, or supremely stupid. Why? Because when I first saw it I made some noise and moved around. I was on video in a meeting so I couldn’t get up and chase it. I made my very large presence known and that should have scared it off, right? Nope. The little shit hung around. It tried going up the light a few times, and it was running in and out of the pile of stuff in the corner next to the desk, and it came strolling out from under my desk a couple of times. It didn’t get the hint.

When my string of three consecutive video meetings ended I got up and kicked some stuff and made a lot of noise. I had a minute or two where I thought I was in the clear. Then I heard it behind me. It was standing next to my amplifier. Yeah, my Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue that costs over a grand. It was curled up next to the power cable. Oh no, you little shit. I got up and it ran. It went under my desk and hid behind my little foot rest. I kicked it… hard. It dashed to the other side of the room. I went after it. Eventually I lost it in the closet. I hoped that would be the end, but somehow knew it would be dumb enough to come back.

I logged onto Lowes’ website and started shopping for mouse traps. I was thinking of capture traps because I don’t want open traps that Patches the Wonder Cat could accidently trip and mangle herself on. That’s when I heard it again. It was next to the amplifier again. I got up, walked over, and kicked it. It smooshed between my foot and the wall.

The end.

Fucking mouse.

Summer?

I took this picture at the start of my lunch break, a few minutes after 1:00pm, on Wednesday August 17, 2022:

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August… not September or October. It’s still summer and this prick of a tree (along with one additional tree in the back yard) is already turning.

Screw that. It’s summer, stop turning! Fall foliage happens in the fall, or didn’t you get the message, asshole.