A little cooler

Yes, it was cooler this week! And boy oh boy, did that make a difference in my energy level. On a couple of different days I had enough energy to do most of my to-do list, even some yardwork on Thursday. It's wonderful to have the temperature drop. I sleep better, I just feel better overall. It's going to be nice this week too, mostly highs in the 70s.

It wasn't a busy week, particularly, no appointments for me (although Rocket Boy, as always, had several). I cooked three times, on Monday (zucchini pesto orzo from the NY Times, surprisingly good), Wednesday (Grandma Peg's goulash, Teen A's request, and steamed broccoli), and Thursday (roast garlic corn chowder with garlic bread, an old recipe from the Ann Arbor News). We had leftovers on Tuesday and Sunday. 

We would have had leftovers on Friday, except that Teen B came home, and we decided to eat out with him at Aunt Alice's in Longmont (Teen A didn't join us), which meant that we could take him to the Flex bus where it stops in Longmont, just a few blocks from the restaurant, at about 8:15 pm. I offered, over and over, to drive him all the way to Fort Collins, but nope, he wanted to take the bus. It just blows my mind and kind of breaks my heart how independent he's acting these days. It's really a wonderful thing, but it brings back so many memories of Baby B and Kid B and so many realizations that he's not that little kid anymore.

I don't know what it's going to be like when he comes home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. Teen A has just absolutely taken over their room. When Teen B comes home, he always looks in the room to see what's been changed, but he doesn't express concern, just "hmm" and that's all.

Cooking just three times a week (and eating leftovers) seems to be working out well, both for the family and for my mental health. This coming week I am planning to cook on Monday and Wednesday (already planned the meals and made a grocery list) and then make fancy sandwiches on Friday. 

(The photo is not of a dinner I cooked, it's from eating out at the Gondolier restaurant, which we did on Saturday, with Teen A. I had a lovely pear & goat cheese salad with a cup of watermelon gazpacho, Rocket Boy had mussels, and Teen A had a meatball sub. Each to his own.) 

Leftovers on Tuesday is a good plan, because I'm enjoying these CU faculty concerts so much. I went again this week: the concert was called "Stolen" and it was mostly pieces written for one type of instrument being played by a different instrument. So, they began with a bunch of saxophonists playing a piece written for trumpets, and continued on from there. One piece for cello was played by a flutist and another was played by a trombonist. A pianist played two Schubert pieces written for voice. Things like that. And at the end, all the musicians got together and played "Careless Whisper" by George Michael (sung by Wham! in 1984). That has a major saxophone solo in it, but I don't think it has parts for flute, trombone, trumpet, etc., and they were all in there. It was great.

This Tuesday it's the Colorado Cello Quartet, which I am less interested in, but I'm sure it will be very good as well. My book group was going to meet on Monday, but it's been postponed until the following week because Sally hasn't finished the extremely long book (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado). I did finish it, because I forced my way through it, and on Thursday and Friday night Rocket Boy and I watched the movie, which I got from the library. The movie came out in, I think, 1976, and I feel like my parents went to see it, but I could be wrong about that. I don't think I saw it. My "book of lists" doesn't start until 1980, unfortunately. The movie has a lot of nudity in it, and I kept wondering, did my parents watch this? I don't know, and there's no one to ask. 

I thought the movie was better than the book, but I have read that the book is a bad translation and leaves out a lot. I'll be interested to hear what the rest of the book group thinks of it, whenever we do manage to meet.

Rocket Boy and I went to the cabin today, our first trip all season. When I looked at the log book we keep up there, I saw that our last trip had been on September 21, 2025, so exactly a year ago. 

We got a late start, but it didn't matter, since it was just us. We had our usual lunch in Bailey at the Cutthroat Cafe, and then drove on into South Park. I had read that because of the drought, it wasn't going to be a good year for fall color, and that was right. We saw a lot of trees that had clearly just gone from green to brown, no pretty colors. They also said that the trees would change early this year, because they are so stressed. There were plenty of leaf peepers out and about, but I wondered if they were enjoying the brownish trees. We did see just a few pretty patches of aspen, in orange and red, not just yellow.

We stopped at Al-Mart in Alma for some snacks (I always want chocolate at 10,000 feet for some reason), and then drove on to the cabin. And there we found the aspen completely done (although on the other side of the road they were still yellow, go figure). In the log book for last year I had written that they were in full yellow plumage on September 21st, so that shows how the stress from the drought has affected them this year.

We walked down to the beaver ponds, but I decided not to go all the way, because of my knee. Rocket Boy went all the way down and walked around a little. The ponds looked healthy. I guess the South Platte River has plenty of water, even if nothing else does. We noticed that there were no patches of snow on any of the mountain tops (as there usually would be, even this time of year).

We left relatively early, around 5 pm, and got home just after dark, so that was good. We might have stopped at the Cutthroat Cafe again on our way home, maybe just for a piece of pie, but I saw online that they now close at 3 pm every day, no more evening hours except on, I think, Tuesday, when something special must happen, some meeting or something. So we just had leftover soup when we got home. Teen A and his girlfriend arrived right after we did, but they'd just had ice cream, didn't want any soup. Teen A is very independent these days too, although he sometimes eats what I cook.

So, now here comes the last full week of September. No book group, but another concert on Tuesday. Three meals to cook. Lots and lots of time to work on projects, if I have the energy. This past week I only went on one walk -- last Sunday, with Rocket Boy -- so this week I will try to take a few walks. Last week I did manage to do two stretch videos, and I also lifted weights twice. The goal is three stretch videos and three weight-lifting sessions each week, but I would settle for two, especially if I could also take at least two walks.

I also did some writing this week, on I think at least three different days. I'm starting out slow, re-reading my October middle grade novel and making little tweaks in it. Once I finish that, I will go back to my November novel, which I haven't touched since last November. I'd like to get that draft done -- I remember that it was giving me trouble, but maybe since it's been almost a year, I'll be able to look at it with fresh eyes.

The photo is of a darling toy stroller that came in the mail this week (from eBay, natch). In the October book, my character Bryony pushes her little sister Maudie in the stroller at various times, so I wanted to get a stroller, the better to act out the story. I know it's a little weird to have my characters represented by dolls, but I'm probably not the only writer to have ever done that. I remember reading a novel that featured a mystery writer who built dollhouses for each of her mysteries, showing how each murder was committed. Of course, that was a novel. But probably someone besides me has done it in real life.

Poor Sillers is still peeing on everything, but we're kind of getting the hang of preventing big problems. Both Rocket Boy and I go around sniffing bedding and cat blankets and pee pads all the time. As soon as we smell that telltale odor, I grab the offending item and take it to the washing machine and we put something else in its place. 

And I guess that's about it. I was going to show you Rocket Boy's latest acquisition, but I forgot to take a picture of it, so I'll save it for next week. It's an animatronic raven that moves its head and says "Caw! Caw!" It's motion sensitive and Rocket Boy got it for some project of his. Teen A saw it and said, "Why do we need a raven?" I said, "Well, we have everything else, why not?"