Easily Tangented

Our favorite bagel spot in Hoboken, used to have ‘Frank’ out in front of the store. Always made me happy to see him. It occurred to me, the last time we were there, that Frank hadn’t been out on the sidewalk, inviting us in, so I asked the owner. He said that Frank had been involved in a drunken brawl, with a couple of inebriated young men, and he came through the plate glass window. The young lady behind the counter was almost sliced in half as the window shattered. Thank you, guys, for almost killing a girl with testosterone, alcohol, and glass. Thank you, too, for making my friend Frank ‘retire’ … I miss seeing him in the neighborhood… Hope you are doing well…

A view into our small Midwest holiday…

I know, I know… I said I was going to post more, then disappeared… We have been mondo busy getting ready for projects and trips and holiday things and…

Will continue this later…

Halloween has come and gone. It’s one of, if not, our favorite holidays. We have friends that have a great party the Saturday before, and it something we look forward to for months.
One of the creative parts of the evening, besides hours of jamming, is pumpkin carving. You bring a prepped pumpkin, and carve it there. This year, they made us bring them home after the party. Otherwise, they end up with 30 jack O’ lanterns on the front porch. Some people would love that, but not this time.
So, we ended up with four, instead of the two we carve the night before Halloween. We were kinda happy about that, as we gazed down the driveway…

Stone Bridge trail, a photo by magtimmag on Flickr.

HI.
After a busy weekend of chores, errands, humdrum, we decided to go for a bike ride this afternoon, to a lovely route. The Stone Bridge Trail is in northern Illinois, and gets it’s name from a massive limestone block bridge, assembled in the late 1800′s… You don’t realize that you are even riding over it, but, there are observation points-not that a bridge needs observing,but- to see the stream going through the area…
A perfect summer day to feel the sun on your back, the smells of dust, foliage, crops, and the wind carrying the sounds of several species of birds… Life is good…..

A young lady walked down the camping area with a kite. With the jamming going on behind me, it seems like an 80′s tv show opening…

My lovely wife did a great job decorating our site

Our home, a photo by magtimmag on Flickr.

This is our campsite, at dusk on Saturday night. A beautiful site

So, spring is here in the Midwest. Warm, cool. Sunny, rainy. It changes, moment to moment. We do so enjoy the return of the flowers popping out, and the sound of the small waterfall in the pond, and Vinnie, the bouncer gargoyle. Standing by the pond, Feeling the sun on your shoulders, and hearing the birds coming out of winter retirement, is a real elixir of the soul.
It’s the little things that make life joyful…