Hello Everyone! October is coming to a close and temperatures are set to start dropping here in Washington over the weekend to near freezing. Halloween decorations are up in full force right now which can only mean one thing – I’m about to complete another trip around the sun. If you had told me at this time last year where I’d be and what I’d be doing in 2020, I would have laughed it off as some sort of science fiction nonsense. But here I am at home in D.C. in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. My travel gear is on mothballs, the company I’ve worked for for much of the last 20 years is gone and I spend my days walking through the woods with a 2 year old. The year has had its highs and lows for sure and some of each have been pretty intense, but I’ve made it to another birthday with my health and my good humor and that’s going to have to be okay under the circumstances. Happy Birthday to me! All I want this year is a quick end to the pandemic, national healing after the election and to be able to get back on the road in early 2021.
My Puzzle Available Now!
In big news, my puzzle came out this week. For those of you who don’t know, I had one of my photos used for a beautiful wooden jigsaw puzzle from the great folks at Wentworth Puzzles in the U.K. I got my sample copy in the mail the other week, and it is a really beautifully made puzzle. There are specially shaped pieces like a wolf and an eagle, and it is so nice to see a well-crafted wooden puzzle when you’re so used to cardboard. It was a great photo (if I do say so myself) made even more beautiful by the artists at Wentworth. The puzzle is available on their site (find it here) in two sizes: 250 pieces ($49.50) and 500 pieces ($97.50) with shipping to the U.S. a flat $16.50. I know they are a bit pricey, but they are truly beautiful and unique and would make great gifts this holiday season.
My adventures with Mason have continued this week. We are starting to focus on toilet training which isn’t the most fun thing in the world but it’s certainly an adventure. We continue to enjoy the Halloween decorations and the leaves coming down in his neighborhood. The falling leaves came up in a discussion at the end of last week when we were discussing the difference between horns and antlers. We spend a lot of time reading books about animals, and to me there’s no reason for him not to learn the difference from the get-go. We’ve been talking about how horns are permanent, like the pine needles we see, while antlers fall off like the leaves are doing right now. Mason continues to learn his letters, and it’s pretty amazing to me that he knows almost all of them at this point. We stop in the woods at the Rosetta Sign (my name for it), and he knows every single letter on it. He always wants to stop and look at street signs and try and decipher them, and really loves reading the letters on my shirt in the morning. I even broke out a Montana Grizzlies shirt this week because we don’t encounter a lot of Zs in our walks. His sentences continue to grow in length and complexity and he even called himself by his name today while we were playing a game which I thought was really cool. I’m also thrilled that he will be going as a Nittany Lion for Halloween this year to support my Penn State football team in their rivalry against Ohio State on Saturday (that’s a joke for you, Kozimor Family, I appreciate you following my blog!). Mason’s mom’s side of the family lives in Ohio, and “Ohio” is his word for the letter “O” after which he always tells me his Nana is in Ohio.
I’ve continued my morning walks even though I need get up at about 6 to do so. It’s not just important to maintain some level of exercise, but it gets my brain functioning up to normal so Mason and I can hit the ground running in the morning. Although I will miss the hour of daylight in the evening, it will be more than welcome in my mornings since I am currently out and back before sunrise. I miss my old walks which were generally longer and more varied, but I go on a good one now which is quiet and on which I don’t run into many people. It’s great for what it is. One of the cool things about being out that early and walking as close to the park as I do is that I’ve been seeing a lot more wildlife since it’s been darker earlier. This week, in addition to the squirrels and rabbits I normally see, I saw a beautiful fox and a pretty reasonably sized buck out there, both of which are pretty cool things to see when you live in the city.
I also finally got around to watching the Tiger King this week, which was all the rave 6 months ago as this pandemic was just kicking into higher gear. I must admit I didn’t care for it and don’t even really understand what all the fuss was about. Had people never seen gay rednecks before or been to a zoo? I spent the whole time waiting for it to get good or shock me or whatever it was supposed to do and then it was over. There are so many better things out there to watch to be wasting your time on such junk. I’ll go back to reading my books for a while.
Last Friday we tapped into our homebrewed Oktoberfest, and celebrated the namesake holiday to go along with it. The beer was excellent and we were really pleased with how it turned out. We bought our supplies from a different supplier for this one, and I’m excited to try another beer from them and see if that makes a key difference. We also sampled a number of different Oktoberfest style beers from Germany and from the U.S. as well and ours stacked up nicely. I made some schnitzel and a nice warm German potato salad and we listened to some great old polka music as well. It was another successful Friday night party in the basement.
On Saturday we had Mason and his parents and my other friends Pete and Katie come over for a socially distanced visit under the magnolia tree in our front yard. Pete and Katie’s daughter Zsofi was getting ready to celebrate her first birthday and it was amazing to see how much she’s grown since we saw them a couple of months ago. I brought down some cool Tonka trucks from the attic for Mason to play with which he seemed to enjoy, and his parents got us some great matching M&M shirts (in blue no less, my favorite flavor of M&M). We enjoyed some beers, listened to the return of Penn State football and enjoyed the fine October weather.
Monday I was back with young Nick as we continue to prepare him for his High School Placement Test which is coming up at the end of the year. We had a really excellent session figuring out how to take a fraction, decimal and percent of a whole number. It was a skill I know he had struggled with, but we really pushed through it and once the light went on, he ran with it way faster than I could have even hoped. It was great to see, and I think it was a boost to his confidence as well.
Yesterday my mom and I got back to our Tuesday adventures and went to see the rest of D.C.’s haunted houses which we hadn’t got to yet. The two main ones we wanted to see were the Woodrow Wilson house (where he died), and the Indonesian Embassy, also known as the Walsh-McLean House, a Gilded Age mansion which once housed the Hope Diamond. We also went to the Exorcist Steps and headed south to Alexandria to visit the grave of the Female Stranger (I’ll write more about that later this week). We ended up our day wandering through the grand and beautiful Mount Olivet Cemetery, one of D.C.’s oldest and biggest which has commanding views over the city. It was a very cool cemetery to see.
Tonight we will continue our pandemic Wednesday tradition of Dinner and a Movie which will also continue our celebrations of Oktoberfest and Halloween with bratwurst and Young Frankenstein. Then the Amazing Race continues which is always a good thing for me to look forward to.
This coming week will be a busy one. My birthday is Thursday, we have our regular Friday festivities planned, Saturday is Halloween and Sunday is All Saints Day. Then, of course, Tuesday is Election Day here in the U.S. which hopefully will be calm and peaceful. I don’t know what else I’ll be able to accomplish this week, but there will be plenty to keep me occupied. Stay safe out there wherever you are, have a good week, Happy Halloween and please be sure you vote. I’ll see you right back here this time next week.
-Mike