The musings of a madman...

       Fall officially began this week on Monday. For those of us here in west-central North Carolina, the piedmont and foothills region, that means people will trek an hour or two west up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for nature's annual light show in the changing of the leaves. As mundane and unworthy of the trip as this sounds, this is a thing that people drive into the region for every single year. [ Link ] [ Phlip note : I have never personally made this trip and likely won't, September is the latest I've ever been up there ]      Although the parkway sits right on the way to one of Wife Person™ and I's favorite weekend getaway spots, we haven't been since April of last year. Not that we wouldn't WANT to or haven't had the capital means, we just haven't had the time to get away with my spring/summer side hustle and our now one year-old grandlittle.      As y'all may or not remember, but should after this paragraph, our last trip up t...

  (artist's reenactment...  My Outback is actually white)      There is fun to be had out in the world. Given other responsibilities, I am not exactly able to take advantage of as many of them as I might like, but we do what we can…      As it is now spring and I will have a steady infusion of disposable income as I watch over four (and hopefully counting) paying yards with my trusty lawn equipment, I had some time and a few nickels to rub together last weekend. Saturday morning, Wife Person™ shoved off to teach you people’s children in Saturday test-prep season and I hauled out to cut a couple of yards. I returned home before she did after collecting my fee plus tips. As the little was with my ex wife a woman I had a wedding with once, it was just the two of us and the dogs.      One thing we like to do when it is just us grownups is to escape up to the mountains for a day or two. Since, again, the little would be returni...