Wednesday HodgePodge

 1. Just your weekly mid-week reminder that it's fall y'all and it's my favorite. I love nearly all the flavors of fall but let's weigh in with an either or today...pumpkin or cranberry? hot apple cider or pumpkin spice latte? cinammon or maple? apple or pear? ginger or sage? carrot or butternut squash? Yes you have to choose. What's a favorite dish made with one of the flavors listed here? 

Fall flavors...hmmm...I just saw a recipe for a pull-apart bread made with brie and cranberry sauce...similar to the baked stuffed brie I made once...

2. Do you miss traveling? In this season of almost no travel do you think you've grown anxious or fearful about traveling again? Or has all this staying home not going anywhere made you restless to get out and see the world? What book have you read or what movie have you watched that has inspired you to travel? 

John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley.  It was a paperback I found in my parents' basement, with Steinbeck and his poodle staring out at the reader from the book's cover. The book romanticizes travel around the country...

I read it as a teen, and again when I was in my 20's.  This is a travelogue of Steinbeck's 1960 road trip from his home on Long island up to New England, across the country to the Pacific Northwest, down to his birthplace in Salinas, California, then through Texas and the Deep south before returning home. Steinbeck claimed to have made the trip with only his dog Charley, in a pickup truck outfitted with a cabin so that he could camp out.  

I later found out that most of it was fiction, that the novelist had been accompanied by his wife for most of the trip, and had stayed in hotels and motels many of the nights when he claimed to have been camping out. 

If  I had the time, and the money, I'd love to do a cross country trip.  I've never been one for camping, so perhaps my trip would look more like the one Steinbeck actually did instead of the one he wrote about, but still, I think it would be fun.

3. A time you felt like you were 'flying by the seat of your pants'? Explain. 

My daughter Jen will celebrate her 30th birthday soon.  I remember the day she was born as if it were yesterday.  Giving birth, being in the hospital with my firstborn...major adrenalin rush...

But then we went home.  Before she was born, I had had no experience with taking care of a newborn. We got home, put her in the crib...and then I started to cry because I had no idea what to do next...

4. Do you struggle with road rage or are you more of a 'Sunday driver'? Do you like to be 'in the driver's seat (literally and/or figuratively speaking) ?

Literally ... I like to be in the driver's seat, I am a terrible passenger. But while I see  a lot of weird stuff on the road, I don't have road rage.  

Figuratively... my life is more like a bicycle built for two; if you have a partner you both have to steer the bike.

5. Something you've recently 'put the brakes on'? 

When it comes to Halloween, Drew and I are like a couple of teenagers.  We love Haunted Houses.  Dark corridors, strobe lights, fog machines, loud noises, actors is ghoulish costumes...

Most years we go to a small, local amusement park that sets up six different houses.   When we went last year, the park was very, very crowded...

Well, this year they advertised that they would follow all local guidelines, including "timed tickets", limiting the number of people in each house and in the park itself, etc.  That sounded exciting.  We were planning to go last weekend, but Drew wasn't feeling well, so we decided to wait a week.

Good thing...

Drew was watching the evening news on Monday.  He called me into the room.  It seems our amusement park was NOT in compliance with local guidelines, it was so crowded that the fire marshal had to issue warnings that if it happens again they will be permanently closed.

I think we'll take a pass on visiting this attraction this year.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

 

Yeah, my daughter is almost 30...time sure flies...