September in review

The month of my birth is ending, along with my seasonal part-time gig and our streak of San Diego-esque weather. Yes, it was a beautiful run of sunny, 73-degree days. But now the furnace has kicked in. And I'm cold. You know my feelings on that topic. If not, just look at the title of the blog.

To add insult to injury, I don't get paid to use a walkie-talkie and clipboard for another six months.

The month in which fall began included stops at this warm and sunny beach.

Later in the month, the child made her debut at a famous stadium. We spent a beautiful sunny afternoon watching the green and gold lose (while getting sunburned at the frozen tundra).

But the weather turned ugly on the way home when we stopped at the same beach, no longer warm and sunny.

Finally, we took a late September hike to the Appalachians? No, it's still the Badger State. That's just fall rolling in, with winter right behind it. I'm looking forward to the fall colors if the wind and rain doesn't get to them first.

My other September happening was being present at a gathering of people with whom I graduated from high school a round number of years ago. I need a little more time until I can properly reflect on that evening.

Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think.

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The elusive triple play

Last September I referenced the fact that I had never witnessed a Major League triple play in person. That changed today... saw one.

What else is there to dream about in my future baseball game observances? Have to think about it.
















In other news, I spent Saturday at the beach. Remembering to bring the sand toys for the child (for once) got me some bonus "sit on a blanket and read" time.

Beach, triple play... there's one day remaining in this holiday weekend.

What's left but to drive a golf cart?

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Walk, don't run

The title of this post has a double meaning, of course. First, the literal. I haven't done much walking or running (for real exercise) this summer, and apparently with 40-something temperatures upon us in August, summer is over.

When I occasionally did venture out for fitness, I was trying to do more jogging than walking, in theory to get a better workout in less time. In reality, I just gave up on jogging early on and walked home slowly.

I, a speed-walker, had lost my walking groove. But today it returned; I don't know how or why. I was leaving my part-time seasonal gig, trailing a professional athlete--who had an off day to get to--by 50 feet or so, and I still had to stop and clock out. But by the time I got to the parking lot gate, I had passed him, walking my normal, in-the-groove pace. For holding the gate, I received a "Thanks, have a good one."

To make sure this wasn't a fluke, I took a lap around the subdivision this evening. The speed-walker was back, practically floating down the street. Walking was suddenly so much better than running again.

The other meaning? I had my annual "summer is over I spent no time outside I hate cold weather when am I ever going to get anything done my house is a mess" meltdown. And with everyone going back to school, you can throw in a little "I don't know what I want to do when I grow up should I go back to school or maybe just move to an island and live off the land" to top off my crisis.

I need to breathe, relax, and realize that I shouldn't run the race called life, but rather walk it, one baby step at a time. It'll all get done, or not. (Maybe now was not the time to bring up bins of old photos from the basement to scan and organize.)

The child is looking at September 1 as Day 1 of 180 days of school. I'm looking at it as Day 1 of 12 years of school, 12 years of the biggest challenges as a parent. I think I need to adopt her outlook, or take it one step further. It's just Tuesday, September 1, and there's a three-day weekend ahead. Maybe I can sit on the patio and enjoy the fading flowers.

If you've made it this far, you get to look at photos that can only be obtained by walking. Our four-day summer "vacation" didn't involve a single beach or golf cart, but we did walk. A lot. I love not getting in the car if at all possible (especially after a six-hour drive).

View #1 of St. Louis, available only by walking across the Eads Bridge at the end of a day of urban hiking.















View #2 of St. Louis, available only by hiking the Ridge Trail in Pere Marquette Park, near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.



Two meanings, two points of view, two hikes. One step at a time.

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Must... post... somewhere

I have limited creative outlets and news sources today (though it was a semi-productive day at work, despite the oh-so-slow servers). Twitter has been down, Facebook has been iffy, and my RSS feeds are cranky.

Plus we no longer get a newspaper at home during the week. (Reason: The child was learning more about copy editing marks than about health care plans from the Wall Street Journal. As a recovering copy editor, I feel a newspaper loses credibility when I read it with a pink editing pen in hand, something I started while reading my college's newspaper. And yes, the child used to read from the WSJ every day. Doesn't every 6-year-old?)

So, how was I to know that John Hughes died? And what else have I missed today? Instead of getting this vital information 140 characters per bite, I've been forced to make my own observations, with nowhere to post them but here.

For example, while walking through the mall tonight (note: not a normal occurrence), I felt like the tallest person there. I'm only about 5-8 but I was towering over 97 percent of shoppers. Disconcerting. Also, overly anxious waitresses who try to rush you when the restaurant is half-empty are annoying. And traffic was backed up, since no one was Tweeting about the delays while driving. Or is that a good thing...

Anyway, life likely will return to normal tomorrow. In the meantime, I had a reason to blog.

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Outside the box

There was no wi-fi available at work today, so the sit-at-the-picnic-table plan didn't pan out. Instead I used every wired Internet capability at my disposal to escape the office for a bit. Yes, I would love to tell you I drove to the airport and got on the first available flight to a warm beach. Someday I'll pull that stunt.















But today, you see, a really big airplane was going to land at our little international airport, and after missing all the weekend's air festivities, I wanted to see something cool, anything.

So I called upon my friends Twitter and Google and hosted a little search party. Quickly I found out the approximate landing time, best observation area, where to park, hash tags for future Tweets, where the plane was going to taxi and park, and which runway it most likely would use.














Everything went as planned, and I had photos of the A380 posted to Twitpic and Facebook an hour later. Half a day later, here they are for you. Sorry, no live-blogging today.

This little social media/web project is right in line with what we're doing at work, so I'll call it a field trip. My observations:














After editing, posting, and re-posting some of the same photos, I need to look into social media integration applications. And an iPhone. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

On the other hand, the photos I picked for each outlet were specifically selected for that outlet. You don't see any photos of people on this page, but on my more-tightly controlled Facebook photo album, there are tagged faces in front of the Airbus.

Within seconds of posting to Twitpic, I had 40 views of my photos. Gotta love saved searches and hash tags.

In conclusion, I did a little research outside the box at work, got outside the walls, and finally got to see a cool airplane. Further justification: The rest of the staff was at a golf outing. Driving golf carts. Need I say more?















Don't think I can justify watching it take off tomorrow. Can I?

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Bouncing off the walls

I worked through another beautiful weekend, so by tonight, after sitting in the desk chair of power for two days, I was bouncing off the walls at home. The husband told me to go for a run. Since I don't run (I walk quickly or jog slowly) and the only shoes near the door were sandals and it was getting dark, I put on the sandals and bailed out before anyone changed their mind.

It was a quiet, still, perfect-temperature, bug-free evening. The best kind, topping off an action-packed weekend in our fine city, most of which I missed. I did catch glimpses of the Thunderbirds in the air show from my clipboard-and-walkie-talkie perch, but the rest of the household witnessed the event from a real beach. No fair. The closest I came to a beach was Saturday morning's quick walk around a glorified retention pond.
















I hope the wi-fi access is back up at work Monday. Laptop on picnic table while listening to iPod followed by mid-afternoon walks sounds like my prescription for the week.

No walls, please.

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Workin' for the weekend

Actually, I worked through the weekend, so I'll have to wait another five days to enjoy next weekend.

Despite the weekend work at my part-time gig, I did accomplish more organizational/annual-cleaning tasks around the house.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, between parades and fireworks, we tackled the "put new shelf paper in all the drawers" project: my husband, with his straightedge and razor blade, and me, washing the contents of each drawer. Fun times, lovely results. Once a decade only, please.

This weekend we moved mattresses, box springs, and dresser-drawer contents to the floors as we vacuumed out every crevice and washed everything in sight.

While all this is productive and necessary, it brings me to a bigger issue: I need a project. Something to plan, work toward, research, analyze, produce. To the best of my knowledge, I have no upcoming weddings, pregnancies, moves, or big trips to plan. What else is there?

Hmm. I could go back to school. But I always think that's a good idea when the back-to-school gear shows up at Target. Buying a new notebook usually satisfies the urge, plus July is a little late to enroll for fall. And by mid-winter, the idea disappears.

Other ideas? Plan trips I won't take? Nah. Though I'll keep my low-airfare alerts current, just in case. But not likely.

Start another blog or other writing project? Maybe, but inspiration is lacking right now.

Figure out how to get more beaches and golf carts into my life? That's obvious, but the inspiration problem floats around that one too.

My part-time gig has just 10 weeks left in the season, the child goes to "real school" in six weeks, and the other member of the household's busy season runs October through March.

What's there for me to look forward to, work on, plan? Ideas, please!

I don't have many drawers and closets left to reorganize. Please save the remaining clutter in my home from my restlessness.

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Escaping Wisconsin

We escaped the Badger State for the first time since last summer. Granted, it was only a border crossing (no passports necessary), as was the prior escape, but the child did get a new state added to her life list. Hello, Iowa!

Random observations from the two-day jaunt to the Mississippi River:

1. Wind farms make for an alien landscape. You keep staring, feeling like you've stumbled onto a Star Wars film shoot.
















2. McGregor, Iowa, is cute. Going down a barely marked road and finding a shady observation platform on which to eat lunch and watch grain operations (trucks, trains, and barges) was a fine discovery (see number 6, below).

3. It's marvelous traveling with a six-year-old who has just developed a voracious appetite for chapter books. She quietly read to herself for more than an hour. Yet she's still young enough to sleep for the other two hours. She also can handle the water slides and the bathroom stall alone, bonus points for Mom.

4. Fur trading re-enactments make you feel like you've stumbled onto a film shoot of another genre, more Blazing Saddles-esque.
















5. Free entertainment on a Friday night kept the family entranced for nearly two hours: We watched barges go through Lock 9 on the Mississippi. We met tug boat workers and lock employees, saw them break up two river tows, learned how everything worked (I'm married to an engineer, after all), and avoided the heavy rain that traveled just south of us before pummeling our house again. (Our only fallout from the rain was a wet hiking trail while observing a muddy Wisconsin River.)
















6. The "I don't like to travel" spouse will have a grand time away from home as long as I find interesting airplanes, trains, or ships, or related museums. Mr. "Why would I ever want to go to St. Louis?" now wants to go ASAP to watch the river tows grow from 15 to 45 barges.

7. The new vehicle, complete with its very own state parks pass, got its first taste of the open road and rewarded us with 39 mpg with the air conditioning on most of the way.

8. We found a cave, waterfall, and a pink elephant. You just never know...

9. Being able to order cheap but decent food (and beer) poolside, while reading a magazine and watching the child run herself ragged on the water slides was a great way to wrap the day.

Next stop: ???
Maybe passports finally will be required.

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One of those days

Some days you just want to vent to anyone who will listen. And what better place to do that than on a blog.

But after running through the events that made this day annoying, I've decided to spare you the details.

Instead I will summarize my biggest pet peeves:

1. Overturned semis that close freeways during rush hour leading to four-suburb gridlock.

2. Stores that don't have anything you need in stock.

3. Overpriced big-chain food stores, that also don't have what you need in stock but you stopped in because you were in the same strip mall as the stores in item 2.

4. Parents who "raise" rude, obnoxious children, who are left free to roam the zoo without regard for fellow citizens.

5. Weak iced coffee.

I think that's about it. I left out a few others, but you get the idea.

As a local news anchor used to say, good night, and better tomorrows.

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Summer?

I remain in hibernation due to the late arrival of temperatures I deem acceptable. Beach girl hasn't even used her state parks pass yet. There is potential for this situation to change next week.

Stay tuned.

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