Walking in the woods

A short post today. Typing and especially mousing (is that a verb?) are painful.

Walking in the Artsy Organized Neighbor's woods with Tasha.

 

Tarte aux pommes

It's the first apple tart of the season! I used six gala apples. Two went to make applesauce to spread on the bottom of the pie. I peeled and sliced the rest for the tart. As usual, the crust is a basic home made (with butter) short crust.

Glazed with mirabelle plum jam. We ate it all in two days.

As expected, the weather is turning. I saw some lightning in the distance this morning, but heard no thunder. And, also as expected, I didn't cut any grass yesterday. Don't want to make the arm injury any worse. There will be other mowing opportunities through October. I hope.

And we're off!

The last thing we had to do was to take the truck in to have the car trailer attached. Here we are, Ken driving the truck, me following behind with his car (a Subaru 4 door sedan). All went well as did the rest of the trip back to California.

Wow! Two VW bugs in the same shot! Our friend Peter took the photo, of course. Digitized color print, September 1986.

Today will be a perfect day to cut the grass. The only problem is my arm. And most of my right side. I don't think, with my injury, that I can maneuver the mower. And we're expecting rain over the weekend and through next week, so the next opportunity is a ways off. Arrrgh!

Ready, set, go!

The truck and car were packed and locks secured. We said our good-byes to Peter (who kept shooting photos, thankfully), to our Capitol Hill apartment and neighborhood, and to DC. It was a slo-mo departure.

Ken and me, with truck packed and ready to hit the road. One more stop to make on the way out...

Digitized color print, September 1986. 

I'll make this post short. I injured myself a few days ago falling over while either cleaning or trying to get something out from under the TV stand in the living room. It feels like I sprained my right shoulder/arm. It's very painful when I move a certain way.

Doctor, it hurts when I do this. "Well don't do that!"

Moving day

It was late September 1986, thirty-nine years ago. I flew from San Francisco back to Washington DC to help Ken with the final packing and loading up the rented truck. Our friend Peter, who we met in Paris back in 1981, came by with his camera to document the fun. These next few photos are his. Almost everything we owned back then was in the truck (except for what we took west in the car-top carrier back in August). Ken's car, a 4 door Subaru sedan, was converted to a greenhouse on wheels with many of our favorite houseplants wedged in. All was ready to roll. We attached the car to a special trailer (front wheels on the trailer and rear wheels on the road) and pulled it behind us back to San Jose. This time, we really did know the way.

The truck was pretty full (look at where my feet are). Digitized color print, September 1986.

I'm hopeful that the weather people are right and that the next few days will be warm and dry. I'll keep you posted.

Bath time

The day after our arrival in San Jose, we unpacked the car and gave it a good wash. I don't know why I didn't go to commercial car wash. There are lots of those in Silicon Valley. Anyway, the car looked great after. Ken would soon be jetting his way back to DC and I would take a short road trip down to LA to see some people I knew. Then classes started up and I was doing that horrific commute. I had never experienced freeway traffic simply stopping because there were too many cars on the road. Add a minor fender-bender and it's hell. Neither one of us commuted by car in DC (we could both walk to work), so if traffic was bad, we didn't really notice. I was grateful when a friend of Ken's offered to let me house sit at her apartment in SF for a week or two while she was away.

My 1982 Subaru hatchback, shiny clean. Digitized color print, August 1986.

 

It looks like we're in for a spell of nice weather as the week goes on. Yay! I may be able to mow before the weekend. Leaves haven't started falling yet, so we have that to look forward to. 

Arrived!

We made it! Well, obviously. Our plan was to stay with friends who lived in eastern San José. After a couple of days, Ken flew back to DC to finish up his job there and I started taking classes up in San Francisco. That was my introduction to Bay Area commuting. Oh my. Later, I flew back to DC and we loaded up a rented truck with everything we had, hitched Ken's car to the back of the truck and did pretty much the same drive again. Ah, youth!

The evening of our arrival. The car top carrier worked out great. Digitized color print, August, 1986.

I woke up to rain on the roof this morning. It was a brief shower and now the radar shows it clearing off to the east. It's my morning to walk Tasha.

A pinch of salt

We left Salt Lake City and the Mountain time zone and continued west toward the San Francisco Bay Area. Google Maps says that the drive along Interstate 80 to our destination in San José takes about eleven and a half hours. A long drive to be sure, but the desert scenery was amazing. We drove through Winnemucca and Reno in Nevada, then up and over the Sierra Nevada mountains to California.

That's a lot of salt! Digitized color print, August, 1986.

It's raining this morning. And it's chilly and dark. The a.m. walk with Tasha will likely be shortened.

Of temples and tabernacles

When I was a kid, the only thing I knew about Mormons was that they sang. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir popped up around the holidays each year. And the Osmonds. That's still pretty much all I know about Mormons. I'm sure they prefer it that way.

The Salt Lake Temple and Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Say that three times, fast.

Digitized color print, August 1986. 

I got the walk-behind mower out yesterday and did some trimming around the hedges and some other hard-to-reach places in the south forty. After I finished and put the mower away, I noticed a rather large spot that I missed. And it wasn't hard to reach. I missed it with both mowers. Sheesh. 

Another state capitol

We made it to Salt Lake City, capital of the state of Utah. I don't remember what I was trying to do here. From the looks of it, I wanted to get the capitol dome and the Temple/Tabernacle in the same photo. I emphasize the word "wanted." I mostly got the corner of what I assume is a parking garage.

Utah state capitol on the left, Salt Lake Temple and tabernacle complex on the right. Digitized color print, August, 1986.

Yesterday I cut the south forty. In the rain. I swear I looked outside before I started. I checked the weather radar on line. All was "go." Once I got the mower out and started it up, I felt a little mist in the air. Nothing to worry about, I thought. I started cutting. About halfway through the mowing, the mist had turned to rain. I kept going. In for a penny, in for a pound, I thought. I can tough this out. It kept raining. I kept mowing. When I was more or less done, I high-tailed it back to the garage, more or less drenched. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out.

A capitol idea

This is, if I'm not mistaken, the capitol at Cheyenne, Wyoming. Check another one off the list. The original photo is very over-exposed; this is the best I could do with software.

Yours truly, when I was 26 years old, and the trusty Subaru, in Cheyenne, WY. Digitzed color print, August 1986.

It's time to pick a few days and start mowing. We might have a rain shower today, but I'm thinking I could get out there and cut the south forty. In some years past, I have been able to mow right up to November. I hope this is one of those years. 

Red rocks

I grew up among several well-known mountain ranges (Adirondack, Catskill, Berkshire, Green), but I don't think I had ever seen red rocks before this trip.

Red rocks in Wyoming (I think). Digitized color print, August 1986.

The sun doesn't rise until 07h24 this morning. Compare that to 05h58 back on the summer solstice ( 21 June). And it's only going to get darker between now and the winter solstice (21 December). Joy.

Ribbons of highway

This land was made for you and me. Shirley, I jest.

It makes me feel small. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Ken and I caught glimpses of the eclipse event last night. We couldn't see the moon itself. There were some clouds and lots of trees in our way. But we did experience the light going all red for a few mintues, followed by a vibrant blue before the entire moon was eclipsed. Then everything was black until the moon started moving out of the Earth's shadow. That was worth the price of admission.

Sightseeing

I don't know why I took this picture. Maybe because it was hilly, beginning to get mountainous. We hadn't seen mountains since West Virginia. Who can say?

Western-looking hills and a little, tiny cloud. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Today will be nice and warm. Then tomorrow, as fitting for a Monday, high temperatures will begin to drop. As for the moon, what can I say. Today's line up includes (get out your score cards) a full moon, a total lunar eclipse, a blood red moon, and a corn moon. All at the same time. I've never heard of a corn moon. Something's corny all right.

Blue skies

At least partially. The interstate took a brief turn north toward Wyoming along the way. I think we made it all the way to Salt Lake on this leg.

Poles and fences. Digitized color print, August 1986.

According to our thermometer, it's 11.6º (about 53ºF) out there this morning. That's why it's called Septembrrrl!

Go west, young men

We left Nebraska and the plains behind us and headed to Wyoming, following what was left of the weather system as it moved off toward the north. The state capital, Cheyenne, is along the interstate and I hoped to get a photo. On the way, we noticed the landscape changing. More elevation, more rocks. Westward ho!

Are these "mesas?" Digitized color print, August 1986.

Our weather is expected to warm up a bit starting today. The cold rain we've been having lately is more like fall than the end of summer. A little bit of heat will feel good. The grass will probably need cutting again in the next week or so.

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

The storm passed and we moved on. I don't really know where this is, but Ken and I've narrowed it down to somewhere around Lincoln, NE, or between Omaha and Grand Island, anyway. The storm had passed and a rainbow came out. Get it? Rainbow? Came out? Never mind.

We're obviously off the interstate in a parking lot with more dumpsters than cars. Digitized color print, August 1986.

Speaking of storms, the wind really kicked up yesterday and blew a gale most of the day. There wasn't much precipitation, but we had enough wind to make us worry about losing trees. Fortunately, the wind stopped in the late afternoon and all seems well. 

Stormy weather

As we continued on across the plains, we encountered this. It was so big and a little bit scary. I worried that the car-top carrier would not survive it, so we found ourselves an overpass and parked under it while the storm moved through. I remember a lot of lightning and thunder. Mighty impressive.

We think this was somewhere in Nebraska. Digitized color print, August 1986.

I forgot to mention... the grape harvest has been underway for about a week now. The younger vines are being harvested by hand and the older grapes are getting machine-harvested. Soon the vineyards' leaves will don their autumn colors. And we've still got nearly three weeks until the equinox. 

Jurassic parking

According to Wikipedia, Sinclair Oil's famous mascot is a brontosaurus, not an allosaurus or a diplodocus as some have written. The internet is a bit unclear on this topic. I grew up thinking "brontosaurus," and so it will always be to me. Us pre-Jurassic Park kids weren't all that familiar with the many varieties of "terrible lizard." Like their mascot before them, Sinclair filling stations, if not already there, are on the road (as it were) to extinction.*

Those gas prices are as extinct as the dinosaurs themselves. Digitized color print, August 1986.

It rained on and off most of the day yesterday. Nothing serious. We do have a rain gutter issue to deal with. We have a blocked downspout, resulting in a gutter that overflows. We can make it flow with a bottle (or two) of liquid drain cleaner, but that means leaning out a window to pour it into the gutter and watching as it makes its way to the downspout at the corner of the house. I will not get onto a ladder to reach the downspout on the second story. That's work for the pros who are younger and more nimble than moi.

* Wikipedia tells me that the company went defunct in 2022, broken up and acquired by other corporations. Or something like that. It gets complicated.

Back to skool

Today's the first day of school for most of the kids in France. Summer vacations are over. Temperatures are dropping and we're losing daylight at the rate of about three minutes a day. I'm hoping we'll have some "Indian summer" type weather before November.

Des Moines' skyline has changed a lot since I took this picture. Digitized color print, August, 1986.

This is the state capitol in Des Moines, IA, as seen from the interstate. Being from a state capital myself, I'm always curious about what the others look like. For instance, Iowa's capitol building has a dome, gilded no less. New York's capitol is one of the few that doesn't have a dome. I've never made a project of seeing all of the state capitols. I should count the one's I've seen. One of these days. And, yes, I consider speeding through a capital city on the interstate as "seen."