Autumn Ambles In

Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach.  I feel it in the air, the summer's out of reach.  Empty lake, empty streets, the sun goes down alone.  Well not quite (sorry Don) but autumn sure did make a strong influx over the past week.  From last Thursday's daylong deluge of rain to, well, Monday's all-day rainfest and the chilly temps inbetween, it sure feels like the fall.  I actually love autumn, especially when there's the possibility of post-season baseball on the North side of Chicago.  As I look back, while I certainly didn't accomplish everything I would've liked, it was (to borrow a phrase from The Hold Steady) a constructive summer.

1)  We finally fully enclosed our back porch.  What was in 2005 merely a screened porch is now completely framed in complete with windows salvaged from the house I grew up in before it was razed.  We eat back there now and Carla even works from the new back porch on nice days, I also mounted some outdoor speakers back there. We couldn't have done it without the immense help of my dad and an assist from our roofer, Fu#*in' Lenny, so nicknamed because every third word out of his mouth is an F-bomb. 

2)  I certainly take much credit for it but we certainly do have a wonderfully landscaped yard, thanks largely to Carla's elbow grease.  I merely accompanied her to our visits to numerous garden centers and helped with some of the grunt work like lugging mulch and whatnot.  My gig has always been mowing the lawn and the more lawn she annexes for her garden, the less lawn I have to mow.  Win-Win. We've also enjoyed some veggies and herbs grown in our yard, augmented by the bounty of our next door neighbor, who's quite the green thumb.

3) I made it to five professional baseball games at four different parks, including two Major League stadiums I'd never been to before.  Not exactly work per se but quality leisure time.

4) I have managed to lose 20+ pounds since May.  Instead of dreading walking the dog, I now look forward to it.  Thanks to my heart rate monitor (a birthday gift from three or four years ago that was largely unused til this summer) I can track my progress in real-time.  Who knew mowing the lawn could be actual exercise?  I hope I can take off another 10-15 lbs. before the end of the year.

5) We managed to get out of town twice for two different roadtrips, chronicled here in the past few weeks.

6) Saving the best for last, the most constructive thing we did all summer was create a little zygote who will make his or her bow sometime in March of 2009.  Sorry if that's news to you, if so, we clearly need to communicate more.

So how was your summer?  What did you get done? What did you put off?

Oh, and Happy Conversation Fear Day!

Comments

[Jeff]

Wow, you sure did a lot. As you know I finally finished that goddamned master's degree which has been dogging me for 2 years - but it was a great feeling to know I'm a finally card carrying Financial Engineer X-D

Besides that, I've done f-all as I don't have any vacation left and my one weekend trip to Bali started with a 6AM flight on Saturday and ended with a 3.30AM landing on Monday, screaming baby in tow.

I've put off fixing my bathroom in the States and *really* need to get to that before the cold kicks in. Thanks for the reminder.

BTW you're #9 in Google for "conversation fear" - we need to get that moved up somehow.

[ken]

Yeah but I'm #1 with a bullet for "Conversation Fear DAY". Not bad.

[TWM]

Congrats on all six.

TW (I think of March 28th as "Nothing Happened Today" Day) M

[Kent]

Holy shit Ken! Congratulations! The porch sounds great!

I am of course kidding, congrats on the little one on the way. March huh? I wonder if he or she will be born on one of our birthdays.

I'm assuming I will see you at the reunion, yes?

[dj]

Many congrats on the zygote. They're actually a lot more fun in person. Hopefully your remodeling of the house included doing more than building a porch -- unless Junior will be sleeping out there.

[Betty Rocker]

Hey! That's my uterus!

[Scotty]

Congrats Ken and Carla! That is awesome news. You two will be great parents. Your zygote is going to have two cool parents. I need to get less busy and check into this site more.