Fall – Driven Outside

Outside of the house this weekend there were leaves littering the grass, there was a damp chill, clouds gathered, the sky was a light grey, and the smell of wood smoke was in the air. Fall is my favorite time of year.

Speaking of falling leaves… Wwe have two paper-bark maple trees (Acer griseum) in our parking strip that I never particularly liked. For 7 years they have been a little scraggly, are the first to shed the leaves in the fall and the last to leaf-out in the spring. It means that for 6+ months of the year I had dead looking stick trees in front of our house. I have wanted to replace them with ornamental cherries for 6.5 of those seven years, but have been hesitant to cut them because they were healthy and I couldn’t find anyone to take the trees, even after I offered to dig them up, hall them to their new home and assist with re-planting.

Well, it became apparent this spring that one of them is dying. I began plotting and had decided to take them both out this winter and plant cherries this spring. Then something weird happened – the one healthy tree started dropping seed pods – 1st time ever. A lot of them. I am used to seeing the single winged seeds helicoptering to the ground from other trees, but this one drops singles, doubles, triples, and quads. There are very cool and from the top almost look like arrow fetching.

Alright. The healthy one can stay and I have collected seeds to germinate and plant in some property with some oaks, vine maples, plums, pecan, and wall it seedlings I have collected in my travels.

I realized yesterday that haven’t posted anything for almost a month: no astute observations, not one pointed remark, no weird OCD-driven lists, no pictures of adventures at home and afield…. Nothing. Hmmmm. I have just been REALLY busy!! It started with painting the living room, the kitched paint was next, we expanded into wiring a hot tub, I decided to finish up a furniture project, the breakfast table “needed” to be cut down, fancied up, and refinished. I am heavy into finishing my incredibly overbuilt and way too complicated kitchen cabinets, Halloween came, there was Thanksgiving prep, I had to put the garden to sleep for the winter, blow all the water out of the yard irrigation system, clean the gutters (4th time this year – grumble, grumble… hate neighbor’s tree… grumble, grumble…). On top of it all, my J-O-B was INSANE: lots of late nights, weekends, travel, OT, pressure, stress, etc…

There is some proof of all the work that we have been doing – I have semi-updated the pictures on my project page, but remember that most were shot with an iPhone in crap conditions. None of this pics are going to get me into National Geographic!

It hasn’t been all work though: I have been able to go to the range with my cuddly .45s and punch holes in some zombies a good bit – fine, fine stress relief. I mentioned Halloween – Stamps-With-Foot and I outdid ourselves again this year at our local Halloween party. We went as Wednesday and Pugsly Adams – a big hit at the festivities. I went as a pimp to work – think Will Ferrel in The Other Guys movie: grill, blond ‘fro, leopard coat/fedora, purple faux croc high-heeled side-zippered boots, a pimp cane, crunk cup, loads of bling, coke nails – I had it down. A my fellow engi-nerds let me down though… Not one other costume in my group – not even a funny t-shirt!! Sales had some good ones this year, HR was all in, the fiber optics group brought game, but Engineering sucked it! How is it all those people with big brains, imagination, and vast amounts of reasoning ability could not come up with something?! There are WOW players, Trekkies, SGA initiates, one D&D uber-geek, and every single one of them (including the female members of our team) have slave-girl Leia dreams…. They let me down, but I soldiered on and even gave a new-hire tour and orientation in my pimp-o-rific attire. I will not forget or forgive their breach of the nerd code! Philistines.

Speaking of my J-O-B, the long hours, travel, all the late meals out, and my general lack of physical motivation has gifted me with 20 extra pounds of fat compared to this time last year. In essence, it is my own fault – my bikes are all sitting there waiting on me to love them, I have a sweet pair of new running kicks, A gym membership that we pay for every month, and a dusty yoga mat. I HAVE to dig deep, put away work and get my butt moving or I will be the size of Jabba the Hutt in no time and the Wife is not into Slave Girl Leia…

I think that brings it all up to date for the most part. I will try to be more diligent about keeping up when life starts swirling around me.

Driven Outside

Tag: Fall

Fall has arrived on my street