Falling Leaves

I really enjoy seeing the trees display their fall colors. I was wondering if we would have much color this year. Our trees usually peak the week before Halloween. This year they are about two weeks late. Be that as it may, our landscape has been transformed from green to a mix of yellow, orange, red, and brown and leaves are beginning to carpet the yard. I’m glad the clean up isn’t ongoing like mowing throughout the summer.

Speaking of being late, we didn’t have our first real frost until last week. Some days there’s a nip in the air. Others are still warm, which is why the trees have been late to turn.

October was a busy month for us. The boys’ last cross country meet were the regionals two Thursdays ago (the 26th). Nate finished his season by setting a new personal record of 21:54. Ben ran on a sprained ankle and finished the course with a time of 20:41. Ben had one day break and then basketball practice started up the following Monday. This will keep him busy after school through February at least. Their first game is next month.

On the social side of things Ben went to the high school dance back on the 21st. This was where he sprained his ankle. He met up with his friends for dinner in Nashville before the big event. When the dance was over they headed over to one friend’s house that is very close to school and danced some more. After that he went to spend the night with one of his buddies. Nate is more like his father in this regard and decided to skip out on the event.

The next Saturday Vicki, the boys, and I went to see the DA Theater Department’s performance of Peter and the Starcatcher. I have enjoyed all of the productions I’ve seen our school perform, but I think I enjoyed this best. The kids did a great job with the play, but I have also had enough of them in class or worked with them on tech support issues that I knew most of the students. That made it very fun for me to watch this time.

That same night Jenna and several of her friends from school went to Adams to see Spirit. Their play was outside and it was a cold night for an outdoor performance. They all stopped by the house for supper before heading to Adams.

I think Jenna is having a good semester at school. I know she stays busy. She’s always got a couple of papers that she’s working on for class when we talk to her. I know religion majors have to write a lot. She told Vicki that she was comparing assignments with a friend who is an English major and her friend was astounded at how much more Jenna has to write.

Mom is doing well. We sold her car last week. This was a hard decision for her, but the fact was it was never being used and we were facing some expensive repairs just to keep it running to sit in the garage. Now, at least, we can pull the van into the garage when we pick her up or drop her off. This shortens the distance to the house and will keep her out of the winter weather as it gets colder.

This is out of chronological order, but I think the highlight of the month was getting away over our fall break which was October 6-10. Don and Penny were kind enough to let us use their lake house again. We all needed some time to get away and rest and this fit the bill. There’s nothing really exciting to report about our trip. We visited a couple of antique malls and ate out several times. The rest of the time we just enjoyed each other by playing games and watching movies.

At any rate, that summarizes the last five weeks for us. It’s hard to believe that we have one more full week of classes before Thanksgiving break. Then we are on the downhill run to the end of the year.

Joe