45: Away from home

(A twist on American Gothic.)

M and I have put on our traveling shoes and are on the move again.  We’re going to be here and there this month, sometimes by air and sometimes by road.  The cats will probably end up thinking our house-sitter is their live-in person by the end of the month.

(Sunset at a rest stop.)

This weekend we are visiting our granddaughters and their parents.  Yay!

We saw our first snowflakes yesterday afternoon just before leaving home.  A few flew by on the drive south too.  Nothing serious and no accumulation yet that we know of.  We heard on the news this morning that it was snowing up there in the snowbelt.  Even if we did get some in our part of the secondary snowbelt, it’s unlikely it would stick around for long.  It’s supposed to warm up a little tomorrow.

(Miss Maddy)

Today we spent the morning with our son and our youngest granddaughter (the Magnificent Maddy) while our daughter-in-law and oldest granddaughter (the Exquisite Emma) were at dance class.  It was a lovely morning in which we got reacquainted with Maddy and she got reacquainted with us.  Maddy has the most wonderful array of facial expressions.  I was busy playing rather than taking photos so I didn’t capture many of them.

(Glow golf.)

We had lunch with Emma after her dance class.  She is 5-1/2 years old (don’t leave off the half or she might give you the look).  After lunch we played a round of glow golf.  No scores were kept.  We played for the fun of it.  Em, who writes with her right hand, is apparently left-handed when it comes to golf.  It was nice to have that grandparent-granddaughter time to get caught up on all the things Emma has been up to since we last saw her.  I enjoyed the glow golf too.

(A walk at sunset.)

I fit in my outdoor time after dinner (a delicious grilled dinner that C — oldest son — made).  M and I went out for a walk around the neighborhood.  I forgot to bring my hat and gloves so it was more than a bit nippy out there for me.  But I did get my full 30 minutes in so the commitment part of being outdoors is fulfilled.

(Playing with manual settings on the camera.)

Although we’re only about 3 hours south, it is a little warmer here than at home.  Some of the trees still have leaves.  And I noticed that the flowers haven’t been hit and killed by a hard frost yet like they have back in the Bogs.  They are going to have their first hard frost tonight when it dips down into the 20’s.  Tomorrow it will be back up into the 50’s.

It’s been a great trip so far.  Emma is planning a breakfast party for tomorrow morning.  She wants to have a Thanksgiving party with us since they will be in Florida for the holiday.  M and I took her shopping for some party plates, cups, napkins, balloons, and streamers.  The plates, cups, and napkins all have Thanksgiving colors and turkeys on them.  Em is going to make chocolate-chip pancakes for us.  I’m not usually much of a pancake person but if Em’s making them, I’m eating ’em.

(Short North Arts District)

The photo I started this post with was taken last night in Columbus in the Short North Arts District where we met a friend for a delicious dinner at Betty’s Fine Food & Spirits.  If you happen to be in the Columbus area, stop by Betty’s.  They have a great beer and drinks selection, the food is excellent, and the pin-up art is interesting.

The photos, by the way, are straight out of the camera.  Some are probably better than others although given the poor picture quality on this laptop, maybe they’re all bad.  I’ll find out when I get home.