maverick_weirdo | Entries tagged with fall

Last week I went to the Fryeburg Fair. Expecting crowds, it turned out that Monday was a good day to go. I was able to get a parking space 2 blocks from the fairgrounds, and crowds were not bad at all.

It is an agricultural fair, where I checked out exhibits of woodcarving, canning, baking, livestock, etc. They had wool in every state from freshly sheered to spun and dyed. I bought some goat cheese from the family that owns the goats (Basil pesto goat cheese spread). I bought Maine grown raspberry jam, and raspberry blossom honey. I got maple coated malted milk balls. There was a booth selling goat suede vests. They looked really nice, but the cut didn't suit me so I didn't buy one.

One of the "rides" I tried was the "Power Jump Bungee Trampoline" It allows you to jump 25 feet into the air, and do flips. It was amazing, but I was glad that I did it on an empty stomach.

Around dinner time I settled down to eat a bloomin' onion watch a performance by "The Squid Jiggers" a Celtic music duo.

On Friday my brother Brian stopped by for a visit (along with Kate and Adam from the Whitehaus). We went for a walk up to the Madison Boulder, enjoying some of the fall colors.

On Saturday I went to the Tamworth Farmers Market where I bought a half bushel of liberty apples, a half gallon of Chocorua apple cider, some tomato & chive yogurt dressing, some onions, garlic, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and cranberries.

Today I went to the Sherman Farm Ma(i)ze. Where I had fun getting lost.

I went apple picking today with my mother, we took home

13 Lbs. of Winesap apples
12 Lbs. of Cortland apples
about 10 Macoun apples
about 10 Golden Delicious apples
about 10 Red Delicious apples

So for dinner tonight I made my Sausage & Apples.
I start by sweatting a couple of onions on medium heat. Once the onions are translucent I add a couple of apples. When the apples start to carmelize I add sweet Italian sausage (cut into bites) to the pan. I finish with a couple more apples, add a bit of water, and cover the pan. It isn't the prettiest dish, but it tastes good. With it we had mashed potatoes & carrots.

(I know this post is a little late, but work has been rather busy this week)

I had a very nice Thanksgiving Weekend as a matter of fact.

Wednesday night I picked up

chaoticgoodchic at Providence R.I. Airport and from there we headed for the cape. My father had recently made peace with his siblings, so decided that he would hold thanksgiving this year. This would be CGC’s first chance to meet some of my uncles, aunts, cousins, not to mention my youngest brother.

Meeting the relatives went well, CGC was a bit frustrated that rather than play games after dinner people just sat around and talked family stuff. When my middle brother called CGC spent some time talking to him on the phone. She has been a bit surprised at how consistently non-judgmental my family has been.

It looks to me like my cousin Meegan has the family curse (ADD) and her mother’s way of dealing with it, is to chastise her every time she fidgets (which I don’t agree with) or to tell her to go for a walk (which I do agree with). She is currently 14.

Friday morning we leave the cape to visit Boston. We started at the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum; we had a lovely lunch there before exploring the museum. I enjoy the building itself as much as the artwork. We also visited Harvard Square and Faneuil Hall.

Saturday we had a quiet day in Worcester, around noon we did some cooking, she made a pizza (which we had for lunch) and I made a beef stew (which we had for dinner). Sunday afternoon I took her back too the airport.

It started on Friday when The IT dept. had an event in Boston. We went on a Duck Tour of the city & the river, then a tour of Fenway Park. Because of the event I was able to get home early.

Then Friday night I went to Phonix Rising Games to pick up a new game I had pre-ordered Cutthroat Caverns, and then I took it to Friday Night Open Gaming at WPI. It is a hack & slash game using cards instead of dice. We got in one game of it (It took 2 hours including teaching the rules) I also got in a game of Settlers.

I got home about 1 am and slept till 5:30am, when I had to get up to do a couple of loads of laundry.

After laundry I headed to Medford to help

xuth move. There were roughly a dozen people there who helped with the move at one point or another. Some I know, some I barely know, and some I have never met before (I’m not going to even try listing names).

Once there was a full load on the rental truck, we went over to his new address about 2 miles away in Cambridge. We ate lunch, and then started unloading. At about 3:30 I decided had reached my limit and went to the MASSFILC filk circle which was about 3 blocks away from Xath’s new address.

The filk circle started slow, but ended up one of the largest housefilks I had been to. I am sure part of the reason was this MASSFILC meeting was their election of officers. Joe Kesselman stepped down as president and

victorthecook was elected by acclaim. Also announced at the meeting

happyfunpaul is the Interfilk guest at Conchord 2008.

I brought 1 new song and 1 new poem to perform at the filk circle. I ended up doing both early before the crowd arrived. The poem did a bit better than the song. Later in the evening someone played a seasonal song, and I thought of the perfect follower, but I didn’t have it prepared; so I went online, looked up the words, plugged my headset into the PC and listened to the recording (I have all my filk CD’s backed up on my PC). I then performed the song and it was not bad. A couple of people even joined in. This brings me up 8 song/poems I feel comfortable performing in circle.

Sunday I crashed, I had hoped to make some progress on my paintings, but I had misplaced some of my tools (I spotted them this morning as I was leaving the house.)

In some ways I feel like this weekend was practice for Pythonacon next weekend.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: New England
Current Music: When Fall Comes To New England

One of the reasons I love autumn is that being moody becomes “socially acceptable”.

Melancholy is an acquired taste, and I acquired it I don’t know how long ago. To me it is a bitter-sweet chocolate. I know I am not the only one. There are too many blues songs, country songs, torch songs, filled with pain and longing.

I have friends who have suffered with depression; they see melancholy as the beginning of a bottomless pit that they must avoid at all costs. For them it may be. For me it is a chance to acknowledge my heartache, my loneliness, my isolation, so that I can stop; to work my way through it and come out the other side.

It is a time of wild beauty, just before fading, the storm before the calm. It is a chance to bundle up, to create some separation between the world and ourselves. It is an opportunity to eat comfort food. It is an opportunity to need comforting and be comforted, or not.

It is the shortening of the days that makes the light precious. Being sorry for what I don’t have will help me later to appreciate what I have. If I feel sorrow unashamedly today then it makes room in my heart for tomorrow’s joy.

I know there are others out there feeling Autumn overtake them. Some fight it, others feel it. If you want to cry it’s alright. If you want comfort, know that others feel the same. We are not giving up; we are just resting and recovering, mourning and healing. Of all the seasons, Autumn is the only one that never threatens to be Eternal.

Current Mood: Melancholy
Current Music: When Fall Comes To New England

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"I'm going to go back there someday"

Entries tagged with fall

We are well into Autumn

An Autumn Tradition

My Thanksgiving Weekend

What a weekend

My love for Autumn.

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December 2012

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