Autumn in Colorado

I took a much needed day off from work today. I put Tom Petty on the radio and headed up into the mountains. I attempted to hike the Lion Gulch trail that had been closed since our 2013 floods. The trail is open again, but there is still work to do. I followed it for awhile, but wasn't able to make it to the old homestead cabins along the trail as it petered out shortly after I crossed the river. Maybe if the ground hadn't been covered in snow I would have been able to find it again, so I guess I'll try again in the spring. Even though I couldn't follow the trail all the way, I did see some beautiful scenery.

Although I haven't yet dug out all of our Halloween decorations, I did get my front room coffee table decorated. I went ahead and put all of my books that I like to read this time of year there so they're easy to get to.

Autumn is Here

As good as my intentions are to write on here more often, life has been getting in the way and I haven't been making the time for the blog. Teenagers are busy, which means their parents are busy. They're also pretty emotionally volatile which is just exhausting. The thing is, I can't get too upset with them for causing all that stress and exhaustion, because I remember doing the exact same thing to my parents. So I guess I'll just take this like a grown up and try not to complain too loudly.

We've had an amazing end to summer and start to fall here in Denver. We broke a heat record on the last day of summer officially hitting 92 at DIA. The first day of fall started off pretty warm, but the temperature plummeted in the afternoon and we've had highs in the upper 50s for the past few days. For the first time in months I've been able to sleep at night again. Some people were complaining about the cooler weather, but I have been absolutely loving it!

My family tends to plan in advance, and generally we stick to those plans pretty closely. But this past (wonderful, cool, autumnal) weekend didn't work out that way. We were excited to see my daughter's first competition of the marching band season on Saturday evening. This particular competition requires parking quite a distance away from the venue. So we parked and my husband, mother, nephew and I trudged through pouring rain on our way to the stadium. When we were almost there, a gentleman stopped us and told us if we were headed to the band competition that they'd called it. We thanked him and turned around to head back to the car. My daughter called while we were walking back to let us know that it was cancelled. She was extremely disappointed since she was looking forward to showing us their progress.

By this point we were soaked and got back in the car to head home, where we didn't have any power. After a quick dinner by candlelight, my mom took my nephew and my son to her house to spend the night. My daughter called to say she was going out with her best friend, so my husband and I started a fire and enjoyed an evening at home with just the two of us and no power. The power didn't come back on until around 10:15 at  night. It was almost like a 19th century evening, except that I posted our fire on Instagram.

On Sunday we were supposed to head up to the mountains to see the changing colors. However, my daughter's homework load was extremely high along with her stress. We decided that it wouldn't be responsible to leave her at home and head up to the mountains where we wouldn't be able to step in and help if she needed us. So now I'm not sure if we're going to be able to see the colors in the high country this season or not. I guess it's only one year if we don't manage to get up there, but it still feels a little sad. We will be making the time for the pumpkin patch next month, come hell or high water! As much as I love watching my daughter performing in band because she loves it so much, I don't love the fact that marching season eats into our family fall traditions. But I remind myself that high school is only four short years. Of course my son starts high school next year and as of right now, wants to do marching band also. So I guess it'll be seven short years. At the conclusion of which the kids will no longer be living here in the fall so will be unable to participate in our family traditions. Sigh...

Hello September

It the first of September! Autumn will arrive before the end of this month.

This week I was sitting on the porch in the evening and the street light was already on at 7:30. There are patches of yellow in the trees and the green isn't as vibrant as it was earlier in the summer. Dry leaves pushed by a gentle breeze rattle on the pavement. The days are still hot here, but the evenings are starting to cool off nicely. We're heading into my favorite time of the year!

The Tail-End of Summer

The summer is starting to wind up. The kids are back in school. The sun is rising and setting a little later each day. The evenings are cooler. The afternoon light is taking on that special golden hue that belongs to this time of year.

My petunias are still going strong but my roses and snapdragons are starting to fade and my chrysanthemums are signaling the coming autumn with their beautiful blooms.

We're starting to see pops of color in with the green leaves now, and a few fallen leaves line the path along the creek.

It's been a good summer and as my kiddos get older the end of each summer is a little more bittersweet than the last. But now I'm really starting to look forward to autumn which is my favorite time of the year.

The Great American Eclipse

I'm feeling pretty fortunate today because we got to see the eclipse. The clouds moved in this afternoon so we missed the very tail end of it, but otherwise we had a clear sky and perfect viewing. (Yes, I had eclipse-approved glasses.) Here in the Denver suburbs we had a 93% eclipse, so it wasn't total but it was still pretty impressive. The shadows were harsh and very well defined, with the tree leaves casting crescent-shaped shadows. The street lights around our office turned on during the height of the eclipse, even though it didn't get as dark as I thought it would.

This is a picture of the crisp shadows after the eclipse had just started.

Here are pictures of the street light from inside the office. The first is from the peak of the eclipse and then the next two were taken as it started getting lighter again.

Here are pictures of the leaves casting the crescent-shaped shadows. They look blurry but if you look at the sidewalk you can tell they're actually in focus.

I heard someone make a comment today that he didn't know what all the hoopla was about as it just looked like a disc in front of the sun. I know I'm a total nerd, but I really enjoyed getting to see the eclipse today. I am very grateful that we live when we do though. I can fully understand how this would have freaked people out in the days before they understood the cause of a solar eclipse. I'm also glad that we got so many warnings about viewing the eclipse without the proper eye gear. We also knew it was coming and could plan for it. While there were undoubtedly some cool things in the past, I'm grateful that I live in the present!

Aging, Injuries, Yearning, and Skunks

I haven't been posting much here lately (or on any social media platform) because I've been struggling with life of late. I'm finding parenting teenagers to be more challenging than the younger years. The thing is, I have very clear memories of the way I felt at that age, so I fully understand where my kids are coming from. But that doesn't change the fact that it's extremely frustrating to know what is best for my children and have them refuse to hear me. I want to be a good mother, but feel like I frequently fall short of that goal, so I've been feeling pretty low. But I'm working on it, and trying to remember that I need to be a good role model so I have to overcome those feelings.

I still haven't finished losing the last 5 - 6 pounds that I need to shed in order to reach my final goal weight, but the good news is that I haven't put any weight back on in the interim. The team of co-workers that worked together to lose the weight is about ready to do a final push, so hopefully it'll take less than a month to lose those last few pounds once I get serious again.

I had a fitness goal that I thought would really help to keep me motivated. My cousin and his family come out to visit us every summer, and my cousin's wife asked me to run in a 4-mile race with her in August. I was excited to bump up my training for it and have it as a new goal...until I got shin splints!! I've never had them before, and am feeling really old now. It's been slow to heal, I think primarily because it's my left leg and I'm an idiot and drive a manual transmission vehicle. When I picked out my truck I thought it would be so fun to drive (and it is) and that it would be a good skill to teach my kids. But my daughter has zero interest so just isn't motivated to learn to drive it. I think if she was in an emergency she could do it, but she's not smooth because she doesn't want to drive it very often. So the upshot is that I made a frivolous choice and now I get to pay for it. Sigh...

This morning I went on a walk/jog (since I can't run right now) and desperately wished I had my camera and tripod with me. The eastern sky was just beautiful with the sliver of the moon and Venus lighting up the morning. I knew there was no point in trying to capture it with my cell phone because it would have just been blurs of light against a dark background. I was motivated to move pretty quickly though when I was almost home. I was jogging down the path in the final 100 feet to my house when I heard a sound and a noticed a slight movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked and realized I was rapidly approaching a skunk just off the path who was looking pretty bristly and nervous. I turned around and ran back up the path at a very good clip and took the long way home. Since this is now the third time I've seen the skunk this summer, I think I may need to run to Costco and stock up on tomato juice just in case.

Road Trip to Grandma's Farm

This is still a working farm. My uncle was getting some of the stored grains to sell.

Over the plains and through the fields to Grandmother's house we go.  I had to change the lyrics because while there are a few rolling hills and some scattered woods, those are not the predominant features between Colorado and Illinois. We just got back home yesterday from making the 1,000 mile trek each way to rural Illinois to see my grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was pretty heavenly to sleep in my own bed last night!

My grandma as a young woman.

My grandma now.

When we visit we stay at my aunt and uncle's house, which was my great-grandparent's house. I even get to sleep in the room that belonged my grandma when she was young. It's less than 1/2 mile from my grandma's house so most days I walked back and forth a few times. My grandma is a pretty amazing lady. She's 90 (she'll be 91 in November) and still lives on her farm. She also refused to let me help with the dishes, and she doesn't have a dishwasher, just an old farmhouse drainboard sink that was most likely installed in the late forties.

This isn't her actual sink, but this image shows pretty much the same setup that she has, minus the dishwasher they have in this photo.

I offered to pick black raspberries for her one morning in truly enlightened self-interest, and she made me 5 jars of her homemade black raspberry jelly one night, after cooking chicken pot pie, corn, potatoes, and apple crisp for lunch (and hand-washing all the dishes herself). She did let me mash the potatoes for her, but I think it's only because she knows I enjoy doing that. She told my aunt she was going to be lonely when we left, but she might also get a little more rest.

Sunset on the plains.

Stormy sky late one evening.

The old chicken house in my grandma's yard.

The one thing that's always a little hard for me is missing my grandpa. He was such a kind, gentle, patient person. While I always miss him, being out at the farm and not seeing him there always makes it more poignant and raw. But I'm still glad we went and spent some time with all of my family.

My kiddos in the tree at my Grandma's house.

A pretty barn down the road from my grandma's farm.

My grandma's "little" garden. She still takes care of this one herself.

On the way out we did a little sight-seeing. We spent the first night on the road in Omaha and they have a very cute downtown area. We ate a local brew pub and had some amazing ice cream at a little shop that makes small batches, so was erasing flavors that they ran out of as we were standing in line (a very long line, always a good sign). There was also a nice river walk in the city, so I was pleasantly surprised with our evening there.

The next night we drove into a Chicago suburb and took the train into Chicago the next morning to spend the day. We shopped, ate lunch at Giordano's, and were planning on eating dinner at Frontera. But it got really rainy in the afternoon, and my husband is slowly recovering from plantar fasciitis and I was dealing with recent shin splints. So after walking 10 miles and narrowly avoiding an impressive rain storm because we went into the atrium area at Navy Pier right before it became a downpour, we decided to cancel our reservations at Frontera. My husband made those in April and we still couldn't get in until 8:30 at night. We took the train back early and ate at a little suburban restaurant. I'm sure it wasn't as tasty, but we were better rested.

On the way home we just made time, although we did have dinner at Al's Chickenette in Hays, Kansas where we ate last summer when we visited my brother-in-law in Oklahoma. That may be some of the best mid-western fried chicken I've ever tasted. Obviously instead of having about 4 pounds to lose to hit my ultimate goal like I did before we left, I now have about 8 pounds to lose!