October 2023

Fall has fell... and it was a mild, colorful fall. The pumpkin crop was lean, but our garden did produce three pumpkins. 

Alice is not crazy about being cradled like a baby, but she lets Emily do it. If anyone else tries she'll bite your face off.

We got front row seats at a Rough Riders game! It's fun when players get body checked right up against the glass. Makes ya feel like you're part of the action. And we ducked every time a puck came flying our way. Reminds me of when me and my friends used to go to hockey games in high school.

Fall colors! We hiked around Palisades one morning as the sun was coming up, right at the peak of the bright foliage.

There were three eagles circling near us and I managed to get a shot of one.

"The warm October wind gusted strongly and great shades of light and shadow seemed to pass across the world."

Carving pumpkins!

Cynthia finished carving her pumpkin first. This was the only pumpkin from our garden that got carved.

My pumpkin:

Are they too old to be trick-or-treating?? 

You don't mess with Rick Grimes. CORAL!

It was a cold, windy Halloween and we only got 2 trick-or-treaters. Later that evening we burned our pumpkins as is our tradition at the end of Halloween.

And then the glass table they were on broke, but I had already put my camera away and missed it. Guess we'll be burning them on the patio next year!

October 2022

 October
is one of my favorite months,
right up there with September and July. And it
always goes so fast. This October went by quickly, too... 

During many of the dry days in October I went to Mt Trashmore after work (and on Saturdays) to pedal the grueling climb to the top and race back down on the MTB trail. It's crazy how fast some people can pedal to the top. I'm not one of those people and I count myself lucky that I'm still alive each time I get to the trailhead at the top. But if I keep working on it maybe I can improve my pace.

Our kitchen is finally finished!

Senior recognition night at the Warrior's game at Kingston:

It's wild that this is Rose's last year of cheer/high school/being a kid. It all goes so fast.

And then there's Emily who is kicking butt her first year in high school and is rocking marching band. She also does whatever is going on here:

When she's not doing that she hangs out with all her cool band friends, plus her best friend Cora. Cora kind of lives with us part of the time and the two of them walk down to Family Dollar a lot to get snacks.

I picked up this virtually unused Kodak Ektralite camera at an antique store, which was the same camera my grandma gave me for my 9th birthday and the first camera I ever had. It even has the original instructions inside and the receipt from Pamida in Independence, Iowa, on December 24, 1984. Apparently it was a last-minute Christmas gift for someone.

Kodak no longer makes film for it, but luckily Fukkatsu does, so I ordered a couple rolls of 110 film to try it out. I fully expect marginal results, but it's a fun experiment anyway.

I went on a photo walk with Rose to try it out:

It was a great day for a walk:

Two days before Halloween we went to see Judas Priest in Moline. It was an awesome show and the first (and likely only) time I've been able to see them. Queensryche opened and they were OK... I think their heyday sorta came and went. Their set was short and they didn't even play "Silent Lucidity"! I mean, come on...

But yeah... Judas Priest was great. Rob even rode his motorcycle out onto the stage just like he did back in the day.

Halloween! We grew our own pumpkins this year, carved 'em, then burned 'em!

Cynthia's pumpkin:

Mine:

It was super windy, so the flames were not as dramatic this time, but it was satisfying nonetheless:

Rose and Fern put together their own Five Nights at Freddie's costumes:

Happy Halloween!