A whirlwind weekend

Walking the dog

So.  How was your weekend?  Mine went by so quickly that I’m still trying to catch my breath.

Corporate park reflections

Or maybe it’s all the food I ate filling me up so much that my lungs are lacking their usual room to expand.  What is it about family and food?

There was still some fall color to be found in south-central New Jersey

Before I start rambling, the photos are some random scenes from the trip.  Most of the outdoor shots were taken on walks near the hotel where we stayed.  The hotel is located in a corporate park where Mother Nature has been allowed some room.  Trees, birds, a lake, a pond, lots of grass and plenty of goose poop.  The geese seem to love corporate parks.

The less natural view. Or perhaps it is the more natural view. Depends on how you look at it.

The M’s (M the Elder, M the Younger, and M the Younger’s wife Mere) and I decided to suspend our vegetarianism for this trip.  It’s easier, for everyone.  M the Elder and I come from families who consider potatoes to be a vegetable (yes, I know that technically they ARE a vegetable, but they’re hardly in the same league as, say, broccoli or brussel sprouts).  The Thanksgiving menu consisted of two turkeys (one roasted, one deep fried), dressing/stuffing (with sausage in it), mashed potatoes, mac ‘n cheese, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows (MUCH too sweet and candied to be considered a veggie of any kind), and a couple of nods to veggies with some coleslaw and mashed rutabaga (a favorite of my father’s that he only has on Thanksgiving because that was the only time my mother would make it; she was not a fan of the turnip or rutabaga after a poor childhood in which those vegetables were staples).  I brought a butternut squash and kale dish.  Mere made a green bean casserole as a gesture towards her family’s Thanksgiving traditions.

Late autumn glow

I think this might be the last time I suspend my vegetarianism.  I noticed that after a weekend of meat eating, I feel weighed down.  Heavy and dragging.  Ponderous.  (And redundant, it seems, but I’ll leave all those words to reinforce the substantial massiveness of how I feel.)  When I feast on fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, I feel light and buoyant.  I prefer light and buoyant over weighed down and heavy.

More exercise would have been good too, although we did try to fit it in when and where we could.  We walked in the mornings, played some football and threw around a Frisbee prior to Thanksgiving dinner, and kicked around a soccer ball on Friday.  I kept up with my yoga and meditation.  But we also spent a great deal of time sitting, especially in the car (a grand total of 21 hours — 983 miles — for the weekend), and a lot of that sitting was combined with eating and drinking.

Curly tail. (Mallard)

It could have been worse, I suppose.  The weight gain total for me as of this morning is 1.5 lbs.  Then again, perhaps all that food and drink and slothfulness hasn’t caught up with me yet.  I’m hoping to head it off at the pass by exercising now that I’m home.

Textured lake. (Processed in Pixlr.)

Some words to the wise (a saying that makes no sense to me in the shortened version):

• Never travel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Just don’t.  It’s awful.  Our trip home was extended a couple of hours by the heavy volume of traffic, and an accident near mile marker 146.  It seemed even worse if you were headed east (which, thankfully, we were not).
• For that matter, don’t travel on the PA Turnpike on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.  It’s not much better.  The travel advisory mentioned that they expected over 2.6 million people to be traveling the turnpike over Thanksgiving weekend.   Seems about right to me.
• Oh, okay, we all know the PA Turnpike presents difficulties in travel anytime of the year due to constant construction so take I-80 if can when crossing Pennsylvania.  You’ll still encounter construction but at least they don’t charge you for it with tolls or outrageous prices for food and gas at the rest areas.  That’s usually the way we go, and would have this time except we had to stop in Pittsburgh to pick up (and drop off) the M&M’s (M the Younger and Mere).

The nature of a corporate park

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with family, but it sure is good to be home again.  We woke up to a beautiful foggy, frosty morning which I almost missed.  As it is, I didn’t enjoy more than a glance out the window.  I was so tired from the trip that I opted to go back to bed rather than go for an early walk.  That’s okay.  I got to enjoy the sunshine and blue sky later.

Across the street from my sister’s home

We must have had a little snow here in the Bogs.  There are small patches of it gathered in shady places.  They are predicting snow showers for tonight.  The chance is pretty slim and we’re not likely to get much out of it if it does snow (unless, of course, the weather prognosticators are wrong).

Power marching across the land

The pond had a big swath of ice growing towards the middle earlier today.  It’s a sign of things to come, although the sun did eventually melt it.  Our mallards (ducks) are back.  We usually have at least one pair of mallards winter with us.  If (when?) the surface of the pond freezes, they move to the creek until they can access the pond again.

In the flight path. (My sister and her family live near a small airport, and we saw a lot of small planes out practicing the day after Thanksgiving. Texture and “paint splashes” added in post-processing.)

I am once again so far behind in blogging that it’s impossible to catch up.  It’s been that way for months, really, but it’s time for me to wipe the slate clean and start over.  Please forgive me if I miss anything important.  (I am also far behind in all things email related.  If you’ve emailed me in the past month and I haven’t answered yet, huge apologies to you.  I hope to get caught up in that area soon.)

Going over the Ben Franklin Bridge (into Philadelphia).

If there’s something from the past month or so you think I should see (or read) or might want me to see (or read), let me know.  That way I won’t miss out.

A sunrise in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

I think that should do it from me and from the Bogs for now.  Thank you for visiting, and joining me on a look back into the recent past.  I hope your weekend was fab and filled with fun, and that your Monday has been a smooth transition into a new week.

This morning’s view of the pond.  (You can see the thin ice stretching across the pond from the right.)

Be good, be kind, be loving, just Be.  🙂

Ice ice baby (From this morning.)

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