October 2023

This year the fall colors in the Hudson Valley were mediocre, but the October weather was great with crisp evenings and also some near-record setting warm days right before Halloween. Here are a few things we've been up to, and here are all photos/videos from the month.

Neighbor Beef

Rob: The people renting our house called me with a concern about the next-door neighbor. There is a curb space between the two houses that is just long enough to park a car, and the neighbor has for a long time parked one of his 3 cars there. When we lived at the house, we found it odd since technically half that space is our property, but didn't say anything for the sake of having good neighborly relations. Our renters eventually became bothered by it though because the car parked there legitimately does block the street view when backing out, and this almost caused an accident. The previous tenants raised the same concern and so for them, I asked the neighbor to please not park there, and he complied albeit a bit begrudgingly. This time when I asked the neighbor again not to park there, he called me with a 20-minute rant about why he prefers to park there and feels justified in doing so. This included complaints about living next to renters, and a lot of things that have nothing to do with me, the renters, or even parking a car. I listened though, and at the end of it he said he would try to avoid parking there. The next day the people renting our house also spoke with the neighbor, who repeated his same long explanation. Despite all the explanation, like myself, our renters still didn't really grasp his reasoning . The whole thing just seemed so strange, because the neighbor has plenty of available curb space on the other side of his driveway. And he really is a nice guy that I've had plenty of good interactions with, and he has helped clear snow from our sidewalk and others with his snowblower, etc. But on this one point about parking where he technically shouldn't, he clearly has strong feelings. Anyway, fortunately the people renting our house seem like really good and reasonable people who would rather deal with some inconvenience than drama, so they are not making a big deal out of it.  They have made good friends with the neighbors on the other side though, and seem very happy with the house and neighborhood otherwise. This made me think about how perhaps one the greatest and most underrated human attributes that we can all aspire to is to just be a reasonable human being.

Birthdays

Rob: This month was Becky's birthday and we celebrated by getting a babysitter and going out to fancy Thai restaurant in Beacon. We also enjoyed baking a fresh pie from one of those farm stands, although I learned a lesson that should have been obvious, in that you shouldn't put birthday candles in a  hot baked pie like you would with a cake. Also in celebration of Becky's birthday, and wonderful Fall weather, we returned to visit the Storm King Art Center on Columbus Day, which we first visited 3 years ago around the same time of year. Even though I took lots of pictures then, I couldn't resist taking more pictures of all the big outdoor art pieces on the beautifully landscaped property. Other birthdays this month are my mom, my brother Jim, my nieces/nephews Mason, Keaton, and Isaak. So happy birthday everyone! Next month is Alex's 7th birthday, which we look forward to celebrating.

Other Outings

Rob: We walked around Lake Minnewaska at the state park to capture the essence of peak autumn, and the colors were a bit better there than where we live. Also visited the nearby Mohonk Preserve nature trail a couple of times.

It has mostly been rainy every weekend here since Labor Day, but on one Saturday when it wasn't raining, we visited one of many farms in the area that profit off the season by doing corn mazes, apple picking, tractor trailer rides, cider and donuts, and other bucolic activities. This year we went to Minard Farms, which had all of those things and plenty of other activities for kids. 

We went to Bounce Trampoline park, and we hit the arcade several times as usual. And we of course went for walks, scooter rides, and mini-hikes and many of our other usual local parks. In the linked photo album you'll see an overabundance of photos/videos from excursion along various forested paths.

Halloween Festivities

Rob: Although Alex doesn't really grasp Halloween as a concept, we try anyway. When deciding on a costume for him, it has to be something that he'll actually let us put on him. So this year we decided on Batman, which is nothing more that a shirt with a cape--so pretty easy. Alex really likes the batman arcade game, so that was partly the inspiration. We went to a church dinner and trunk-or-treat on the weekend, and on Halloween we took Alex on his scooter to a few houses in town including one house in particular that fully embraces the spirit of the holiday with animatronic scary monsters and a fog machine in the yard. I think people come from all over to see it. Anyway, in both cases, Alex was a bit grumpy so we didn't do too much trunk-or-treating or trick-or-treating this year. But it was fun anyway.

What Else Is New

Rob: I finished reading a weird book called 'House of Leaves' by Mark Danielewski that overlaps well with the Halloween season. It is written in the style of a loosely compiled book from multiples sources, and it has a lot of parallel storylines running through the fictionalized footnotes and appendices. I didn't really get into those, but I guess they contain additional layers of mystery for the reader who wants to go down that rabbit hole. Also the text on the pages twists and turns with the story, which is interesting. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the author's style of writing and the main storyline was interesting and enjoyable. That's my review.

Alex: has gotten particularly good at playing Memory lately.  It's fun to almost be able to play a board game with him.  I'm betting he'll eventually get good enough that we don't have to give him "hints" or bend the rules.  He's also catching on to BINGO and Connect 4. For some reason he won't even let us turn on his iPad anymore, one of his favorite avenues of entertainment for a long time. So it's good to find new things.

Becky: I read "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin.  It's about the race to build the atomic bomb.  The movie, "Oppenheimer" was largely based on the book, "American Prometheus", which is also about the race to build an atomic bomb.  My book is young adult nonfiction, though, so it's a much quicker read and very, very good.  Looking forward to seeing the movie at some point.