September 2023

Here is what we have been up to in September. Not much new, except the beginning of the lovely transition to Autumn. Here are all the photos.

Work Trip to Houston

Rob: I have worked remotely for Baylor College of Medicine for 2 years as of this month. Each year, the group I work for has a lab retreat that I travel to attend, and so this month I went there for a couple days. The first day I was planning to lead a workshop for the lab members on science communication. The second day was a series of talks by all the people in the lab, along with some food and socializing. I had a tight schedule between when I landed and when I had to do my workshop. The plane was delayed a bit, then my Lyft driver took forever to get there and went to the wrong place so I had to cancel. Then my second Lyft driver missed the turnoff and had to go around the airport again so I canceled that. And finally my third attempt at using Lyft worked like normal, and the guy was right there right away. My phone battery died in the process of sorting this out, and I had to unplug a big fan in the parking garage to charge it and thankfully the security people didn't notice or didn't care. Plus there was a hurricane-like rain shower going on at the time. So I got there late amidst the chaos and it was incredibly frustrating, but fortunately everyone I work with is really nice and I had to do my work shop later in the day. I stayed two nights in a nice Marriot by the college, and being the introvert that I am, I very much enjoyed picking from the many great food options nearby and eating it by myself in my hotel room while watching reruns of The Office. Aside from my travel delays, everything else went really well and I only wish I had more time to visit with my remote colleagues.

Outings

Rob: September is that wonderful time of the year when it can be either hot or cold, or quite often very pleasant in between. Alex has been much better about walking without begging to be carried all the time, so we've been doing more short hikes, especially at the county park by our home. We hike around the small lake there regularly (followed by some rewarding pushes in the swing for Alex at the playground nearby). But Alex and I also managed to hike around the big lake there too, with minimal piggybacks. That's probably close to 2 miles. Alex is obsessed with finding frogs, so we are always looking for them, and found a rare blue frog right on the trail that I was excited about (see photos). I had recently read about the mutation that makes frogs sometimes blue, so I recognized it right away (see here for more on that).

But anyway, we've mostly been to the places we usually go: Minnewaska State Park and the nearby Mohonk Preserve,  on the trail along the Hudson between Long Dock Park and Denning's Point, the Bounce trampoline park in Poughkeepsie where we haven't been in a while, and of course the arcade several times. Becky took Alex to the children's museum in Poughkeepsie for the first time. It has lots of great stuff, but Alex wasn't really into it. Sometimes he doesn't get excited about places until they become familiar. And some places that are familiar but not that exciting, he really loves.

Challenges with Alex

As noted last month, Alex has been having a lot of anxieties it seems about eating and drinking. He has been even more picky than usual about food, and some days eats just a minimal amount. Same with drinking. In the past his bottle/sippy cup has always been a big comfort item for him, and he would take it everywhere, constantly drinking throughout the day and being very well hydrated (sometimes a little too hydrated). Then a while ago he suddenly switched, and just sips a bit with his meals and puts his drink back in the fridge when he's done. It's a mystery. Some days he eats and drinks a good amount and is his normal happy self. But there have been days when he has hardly had anything to drink, and it kind of freaks us out and also makes him grumpy and constipated. He seems to be doing better lately, and hopefully it is a phase that will pass soon.

Writing Projects

Rob: This month I had two stories published. For KSL.com, I wrote about brine shrimp and their extreme survival mechanisms. I had an interesting chat with a USU professor who was able to hatch brine shrimp eggs in his lab that were more than 200 years old, so it was great to include that in the story. And for ScenicHudson.org, I wrote about floatovoltaics, which is the new concept of putting floating solar panels on reservoirs. A small city in New York is doing this with their reservoir, making them one of the few in the U.S. and the first to do it as a city-owned project. It will power city buildings and provide electricity for lower income residents. I enjoyed chatting with the city planner in charge of that, and learning about the process to make that happen. I have another story about moss for Scenic Hudson that should be out later. 

What Else Is New

Rob: For $20, I got this attachment you can put on your smartphone camera that magnifies things 200x. It works surprisingly well, and I used to take photos of moss and brine shrimp eggs for the stories I have been writing (see in the photos). 

Becky:  Aside from Alex's OCD behaviors and food/drink refusals, It's been a pretty pleasant month.  Thankfully Alex has been more himself this week- we weren't sure just how long that was going to last.  One of the more interesting things in my life is working in Primary.  I feel like I'm starting to rediscover my inner child.  When I was in undergrad and grad school, I was an FHE mom/coordinator- it just seemed to be the thing I kept getting called to and it made sense because it's probably the calling I would've picked.  I basically just thought of random ways to have fun for activities.  Many years later I'm getting to do some of that in Primary and I'm rediscovering my more fun-loving, playful side.  That's the great thing about working with kids.  And it's funny how similar doing activities with kids and doing activities with singles is.

Alex: Has been extra bossy lately, and it is probably related to some of the same anxieties he's been having with food. He pushes and pulls us into certain rooms of the house where he thinks we should be and gets uspet if we don't stay there. It is sometimes his way of saying he wants to stay home and not go to school. Sometimes he won't eat unless we are sitting or standing in the same spot where he was when he started eating. He won't eat his breakfast now if there is a movie on (we used to always put a movie on for him in the morning while he ate his breakfast and we got him ready for school). There's a balance in how much we can or should indulge him  in his OCD I guess. But again, he seems to be doing better lately and hopefully it is a phase that will pass.