Category Archives: Pedestrain Post

Great Weather, Dull Post

Today is the sort of day November sometimes gives us as a gift, a kind of a fond farewell to the warm weather. The sun was bright, the sky was blue and it was warm enough to not really need a jacket.

I walked to the post office with Tabby, to mail some postcards I had written. I started out in my rain jacket (for the large pockets), toque and sunglasses. A hat of some sort was necessary, due to a bad hair day. I told myself it didn’t matter if it was too warm for the toque; the young kids are wearing knitted hats in all kinds of weather these days. Still, after about five steps, I returned to the house, ditched the jacket and switched out the toque for my crazy old lady hat.

The combination of crazy old lady hat (it has a wide brim) and sunglasses was the way to go. What a day! After a while I was actually looking for shade. A guy was raking leaves in his front lawn. What a good job he did; that lawn was almost pristine. I told him I had to go home and do that, but I didn’t mention that my lawn will probably never look that good.

I noticed a “Beware of Dog” sign on a house, where I happen to know an adorable little pooch, smaller than Tabby, resides. I shan’t reveal where the house is, in case they are hoping to frighten prowlers with thoughts of the Hound of Baskervilles, but I had to laugh. Then I thought, it was on the driveway. Perhaps they were warning visitors not to run over their dog. I’ve never seen that pooch on a leash (in their defense, he doesn’t seem to leave the lawn and I believe the people are right there when he’s out).

After we got home from our enjoyable walk, I spent some time raking leaves, as I said I had to. I didn’t get very far. In my defense, Steven had already filled most of our yard waste bins. What a thankless job raking is. I can see why people like leaf blowers, although I find them obnoxiously loud when the neighbors use them.

This pedestrian post has been even more plodding than usual, I’m afraid. Well, one does one’s poor best. Perhaps I can do something better tomorrow. Maybe some running commentary. Or there is another Vincent Price movie I can write a post about how I can’t write a post about. I do hope you’ll stay tuned.

Into the Gloom

Well, I wrote that title and have been sitting here, not looking at it but resting my head in my hands. I’ve heard that everyone who suffers from allergies is REALLY SUFFERING this year. No doubt some people are suffering more than me. No doubt most people do not want to hear about my suffering.

In fact, that title was not meant to refer to my health problems or the resulting less than sunny mood. It was a straightforward observation of the weather.

Steven and I took our schnoodle Tabby for a walk after dinner tonight. Cold fall weather has come to the Mohawk Valley, so I dressed accordingly. I put on a hooded pullover sweatshirt, put the hood up, and added a warm jacket with a print involving skeletons. If I would have put on gloves, my life would have been perfect.

I know what you’re thinking: It’s OCTOBER, for heavens’ sake! What are you going to do when the snow flies and it’s below zero? Well, I’ll be acclimated by then, of course. Anyways, I was perfectly comfortable today except for my hands, and hands are often problematic.

Getting back to the walk, it was well before sundown but cloud cover darkened things considerably. It rained a little earlier but had stopped. It looked like it might storm, but we thought we might have time for a couple of blocks.

We encountered two of Tabby’s canine friends, Chico and Bear, with their person. We stopped and chatted and sniffed, according to species. I petted Chico, and Steven petted Bear.

We admired several houses’ Halloween decoration. The gloom made the lights stand out nicely. I thought a couple strings of lights looked more like Christmas lights, but I don’t have a problem with that. After all, reduce, reuse, recycle.

“If we lived in that apartment with the bay window,” I said, pointing to one of the large mansions now split into apartments, “we would put a display in the window.”

Steven agreed.

“Look, the house is for sale. We could buy it and put a display in the bay window.” Pause. “If we had lots and lots of money.”

As we walked down German Street towards our street, we saw a man running towards us with a dog on a leash. Tabby doesn’t like to run with me. We got out of the way, but said hello as they went by. Tabby expressed an interest in following the dog, but we talked her out of it.

It didn’t rain while we were out, so that was good. It was a pleasant if uneventful walk. Reading over the above paragraphs, I deem this a pleasant if unexciting blog post. Maybe a step above Wuss-out Wednesday.