Teaism
2009 R St., N.W.
Sunday, Oct. 31, evening
Conditions: Pleasant

Okay, so I didn’t really have time to squeeze in a Coffeeneuring trip Sunday night in between apple picking and trick-or-treating, but I figured that’s why bikes were invented — to hurry up short trips. Plus, you have to start sometime.

So I pulled out the bike and rode down to the garden, which I hadn’t visited in a week and where I had sweet and regular potatoes I wanted to get into the ground before it got any later in the season. (With any luck, I’m still two months away from a hard freeze.) I got those in, picked some tomatoes, tomatillos (my plants grew an adorable second crop of tiny tomatillos after the regular sized ones), and basil, and hopped back on the bike. I took the long way back, past the library, and along the new-this-year 20th Street protected bike lane back up to Dupont.

I stopped at Teaism, which is only a block from my house, to pick up a chai. You’d think with Starbucks no longer next door it would be easier to park, but when they made the rule that scooters had to be locked to something, they didn’t increase the bike racks, and so now I’m finding it harder universally to find bike parking. I ended up locked to a sign. Chai in hand, I hurried home to grab my candy bucket and wait outside for my trick-or-treaters to show up.

Total miles: 2.1

It was a pleasant weekend. I picked up some library books, did some Christmas shopping, and took myself out for pizza.

I watched seasonal movies, read, knit (okay, it was only one row, but still!), and made it to the farmers market.

Sarah and I checked out a new-to-us farm, picked apples, bought cider doughnuts, and ate ice cream cones.

I biked to the garden, stopped for some chai, and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. (This year it was mostly college students. I didn’t head outside until 6:30, so the little littles were done by then, and the tweens in my neighborhood probably headed to a neighborhood with a better participation rate. The last candy bar I handed out went to a grandma in a wheelchair wearing a cat-ear headband. She meowed at me and enthusiastically took a treat.)

Overall, it’s hard to complain about a weekend that could have been filled with a flood that wasn’t.

How was your weekend?

Before I get too far away from my trip to Salt Lake, I thought I’d share a few more photos:

These are all from the same road, within half an hour of each other in Big Cottonwood Canyon:

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten inside Silver Fork Lodge before, but there was a foot of snow on their deck and they showed no inclination to serve us out there. I parked myself as close to the fire place as I could.

This is Silver Lake. It’s encircled by a boardwalk, some of which goes along the shore, while other parts skirt the marshy sections along its edge. As you might be able to guess, we couldn’t tell which was which and which was just straight up pond. We followed some tracks for a ways, but then turned around before we fell in.

This is one of the few maple trees in the area.

You’re just driving along all content in the knowledge that October is fall, and then, boom, someone plants a wintery Rocky Mountain in your path.

It’s pouring again as I type this and I’ve checked our dry bags. Mostly they’re doing their job, which is to keep the water from seeping into the rest of the living room. You may have seen photos of water lapping at the feet of the MLK Memorial statue, so you can appreciate D.C. is getting more than a fair amount of rain today. The rain is supposed to taper off soon and the rest of the weekend should be dry. Fingers crossed everything holds.

Other than keeping my domicile dry, here’s what I’m hoping the weekend includes:

• Apple picking and doughnut procuring with Sarah on Sunday
• A trip to the farmers market before she and I leave
• Giving out candy to trick or treaters (I must figure out where the candy bucket has shifted to. I saw it right before I left for Salt Lake.)
• Painting my nails Halloween colors
• Going for my first Coffeeneuring ride of the season
• Picking up a Halloween and a Christmas read at the Arlington library (I really wish they’d coordinated their holds better so I wasn’t stopping in two weekends in a row, but c’est la vie.)
• Reading
• Knitting
• Visiting the garden to pick up the tomatoes that may have blown off the vine this week (I definitely won’t need to water!)
• Doing laundry
• Starting the Christmas cleaning
• Doing some writing

Okay, this feels pretty ambitious for the energy level I’ve had recently, but I’m confident I can put a dent in the list at the very least. And hopefully Sarah will want to drive tomorrow…

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My volleyball team played an excellent game.

2. One of Rudi’s dearest friends from college is on the first leg of my flight home. I notice her because she’s wearing a sweatshirt from our alma mater. She comes back to sit in the empty seat next to me for a while.

3. There have been breakthrough COVID infections at the assisted living facility where Rudi’s mom lives. She tested negative, as did I. (Rudi will test when he returns home next week. I figured two flights plus the possible exposure at the facility merited my testing before rejoining my volleyball team at an elementary school, particularly since I wanted to verify my sniffles and sneezing were due to allergies.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

No, the shawl isn’t done. But, honestly, I’m a little tired of showing you three rows here and three rows there, and so I’m showing you the potential second sock I might make next.

The book is a modernized comic/graphic novel interpretation of Nancy Drew by Kelly Thompson, Jenn St-Onge, Triona Farrell, and Ariana Maher. I enjoyed the first issue/chapter and am looking forward to polishing it off quickly. Oh, and it also features the Hardy boys.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see this week’s reading and crafting roundup.