We went off to Lena again today (why yes, as a matter of fact, we were just there on Monday.) All in all it was a lovely trip. First of all, it was an absolutely gorgeous day for a road trip. Shortly after we took off we came across this group (bunch? flock?) of sandhill cranes. There were 18 of them, and when they are gathering like that, you can be sure they are thinking about migrating. It seems early if you ask me, which has me a little concerned about the arrival and severity of our winter.
The main reason we went down was to go with my dad to the Fall Festival parade (I love Lena - their idea of when fall arrives coincides with mine!) The parade was fun and sweet, as only small town parades can be. If you've never been to one, then you need to know that there are nearly as many people in the parade as there are watching it. Cub Scouts, Brownies, Boy and Girl Scouts, 4Hers, church floats, marching bands from every school in the county (and some of the smallest school-sponsored bands I've ever seen), fire equipment from every town in the county (if there had been a fire anywhere within a 25 mile radius, it would have been bad news), queens, princesses and junior misses, politicians (current and hopeful), Shriners in little cars, all types of restored tractors (you had your green ones, your red ones and your orange ones), many models of restored cars, and last but not least, horses. I'm forgetting some others, I'm sure, but you get the idea. Nearly everyone was throwing candy or handing out something. I can now state that I am officially old. Here's why: one of the marching bands played "Freebird". Furthermore, marching bands really don't march anymore. They kind of slouch along, not even bothering to be in step with each other. When the parade was over they probably slouched home to write about it on Facebook.
Afterwards dad treated us to the pork barbecue at the park. When we finished eating we perused the restored cars and tractors. Believe me when I say that I was done with this activity way before the guys were.
In spite of enjoying it all (except the prolonged tractor admiration), I also felt sad. This was the kind of thing that my mom thoroughly enjoyed and it was strange to be there without her. The last time I went to the Fall Festival, my mom was alive. I was probably all big-city snobby about being there, I'm embarrassed to admit, and of course didn't enjoy it as much as I could have, especially if I had known it would be the last time I'd be able to do that with her.
And there's something about going to a place where you grew up, which somehow should be frozen in time, and finding that of course it isn't, to make you feel the passing of time. My grade school is now an apartment building. The house I grew up in has new windows and siding, and I can remember when my dad gave it new windows and siding. How can it need new ones? All the backyards we used to play in are owned by different people.
I could go on and on, but this is already quite long. Anyway - overall, a really good day, with some bittersweet moments. And we got free candy :)
Happy Anniversary to Pam and Joe, who were married 36 years ago today! That's 252 in dog years. We went out for dinner with them to Tex Tubb's, and although that was several hours ago, I'm still full. 
This is what my office looks like. It's much neater now that I have the huge hutch-type thing, which hides the boxes of copy paper and other misc things. My desk is relatively uncluttered, and that's about as good as it gets. The walls - boring, right? The sweater on the back of my chair is really unnecessary - the office is always comfortable, verging on too warm.
While I was waiting to hear from her, I checked out the yard...saw this cheeky squirrel cavorting on the maple in the back. I meandered to the front and admired my new mums in all their fall glory.
We had perfect summer weather for Penelope and Roxanne's 10th Annual APT Post-Play Picnic. First of all - ten years??? That was fast. So, to put this in perspective, Andrew was a junior in high school and Erin was still in middle school when we started doing this. Over the years we've tweaked the formula a bit, but the basics have stayed the same. Pam and I (she's Penelope) provide the desserts, coffee, and all the table service. People bring a dish to pass and their own main course for grilling (last night Kev
in and I had salmon!) It's always on a Saturday in September, and we choose a 3:00 play that's a comedy (or mostly comedic.) Once we chose a tragedy, which made for a subdued picnic, so after that we decided to go the comedy route. (Yesterday's play was a little departure from that, but it worked.)
sie's been visiting us since last Wednesday. We often seem to have her on rainy days. There's nothing quite like wet shaggy dog for thoroughly messing up a house. Here she is looking wistfully at the rain, hoping for clearing skies.
What with a holiday weekend, a visit from Erin and lots of road time, I was ready to get back to a more familiar routine. Not that it hasn't been wonderfully fun, because it truly has. And moms are always delighted to have time with their kids. But it's also been exhausting! My regular life allows me to get more sleep :)
take a bus back to Mpls, so yesterday we made the trip up and back. We could not have had a nicer day for traveling, and things went as smoothly as could be. But if you know us at all, you know that we can't do interstate travel exclusively. So even though it meant that we would get home over an hour later, we skipped the interstate on the first half of the trip back to Madison and took 35, along the Mississippi. Here are a few lovely pictures that show why this is always worth doing. PS. The sunset photo was taken while the car was moving.
