Skip to main content

Goodbye Summer

The Harvest Moon is your gateway to fall. It is the full Moon nearest the start of fall or the autumnal equinox. If you missed it this year, Friday, September 16, 2016, the day of the Harvest Moon also brought a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse.

Wow! Can you believe summer is over, another year that has simply flown by. It’s early morning and I’m noticing sunrise creeps over the horizon later and later.

Siri tells me, “Sunrise will be at 6:41 a.m. today.”

The shorter days bring cooler weather. Soon we will don our jackets for a trip to the market. During the summer you could enjoy sunrise at 5:42 a.m. (for those who were up). For readers of this blog this summer marked a milestone. My 60th year.

Yes, Lori had planned a outstanding birthday surprise! Breakfast at Allen's Alley, then off to Los Angles to visit the Grammy Museum. We toured a special exhibit on The Beatles. Turns out August 16, 1966 the Beatles played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles - 50 years ago to the date. It was fun to see photo's; old Ed Sullivan show video, musical instruments, memorabilia, and clothes worn back in the 1960s. Tickets for their first American tour were $5.00!

Then we made our way via downtown LA to Sunset Blvd. to (little did I know) the first established Guitar Center. It was magical. Vintage and custom guitars, new, used, and of course I played a few. Admittedly the best part was walking out on to Sunset Blvd. as so many musicians before me had done with a new Fender Telecaster made in USA at the Corona Factory where we had visited just two years ago. What a fabulous birthday!

Oh - cant forget we finished off our LA tour with dinner at Versailles, the absolute best Cuban food around!

But it doesn’t end there. We made our annual trip to Dodger Stadium to see my Cubs play the Dodgers. And a chance to hear Vin Scully one last time on the transistor radio in the seats at Dodger Stadium. I’m sure going to miss turning on the radio during baseball season and hearing;

 "Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good (afternoon/evening) to you, wherever you may be." His last game, after 67 years, at AT&T Park was Sunday, October 2, 2016. The San Francisco Giants honoring Vin with a dedication plaque in the visiting broadcast booth.

And of course we can’t forget this years High Sierra mountain adventure. An inspirational trip, for the record books. 

Well, it’s after Labor Day and the beaches once again are relatively quiet with the local surfers feeling the chill of the Pacific. Autumn is a time to gather; to prepare for early darkness, a time to plan for the holidays, a time to re-examine your opportunities, and a time to give thanks.

 Shopping areas are again free from congestion, the harbors quietly going about their business, and the freeways, well, southern California is not known for its light traffic. However, if you get out early, the morning traffic is not bad, really.

We are fortunate in California, our temperate climate allows us to continue to enjoy outdoor activities. Remember, on November 6th we “fall back” (clocks set back one hour).

So, take advantage of the cool, crisp fresh air, the morning glow, golden sunsets, and the splendid colors of the changing trees.


Goodbye to summer . . .
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

Back to School (Without the Triple Lindy)

I hadn’t set foot inside a public library in over thirty years. Last Saturday, when I walked through the sliding doors of the modern County of San Diego branch on Eucalyptus Avenue in Vista, my eyes instinctively scanned the floor for the familiar, comforting sight of varnished oak cabinets and brass pull-handles. Nothing . No card catalog. No little wooden drawers. No rows of index cards typed by someone who presumably had beautiful penmanship and a pension. I walked up to the front desk, looked the librarian dead in the eye, and asked with complete earnestness: "Where’s the card catalog?" She didn’t laugh, though she had every right to. Instead, she offered a warm, dry smile: "We magically had the computer digest it." And just like that, I was enrolled. Not the Rodney Dangerfield kind of back-to-school. No diving board, no loud blazer, no campus party, and thankfully, no need to convince anyone I belonged there. Just an overdue reminder that while I was busy with ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beyond Facts-The Deep Dive

✨ In this episode, Beyond Facts: Reimagining School–in the Age of AI . . .   This week's podcast is a bit different; it's another example of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can offer tools to creatively enhance your analytical presentation of information. We took this week's blog and copied it into Gemini with the question, “If a story is to work, it must, on some level, create an illusion of escape and also achieve a goal simultaneously. Does this apply to my blog post that follows?” What's created is not just an analysis of the writing, but an AI-generated discussion produced “On the Fly” - Enjoy! Did you know that the word "school" comes from the ancient Greek word scholē , which originally meant "leisure"? Not a rigid schedule or droning lectures filled with "facts," but free time for thinking and conversation. To the Greeks, learning happened best when life slowed down—when you had room to reflect, to ask questions, and to wrestle ...
4 comments
Read more

Doc Welch - The Country Doctor

In this episode, Doc Welch . . . Many authors have characterized life in rural Illinois over the years. Among the more notables are Edgar Lee Masters, who wrote Spoon River Anthology, Carl Sandburg for his poetry and biography of Abraham Lincoln, and little known to me until recently, my first doctor, whom everyone in town always called Doc Welch - James K. Welch, M.D.  (Feb. 7, 1915, to May 5, 1998) While exploring the microfilm of the Cuba Journal (published from 1884 to 1992), I consistently kept running across articles entitled The Country Doctor. This intrigued me. Doc Welch was a third-generation practicing Country Doctor in Cuba for over 40 years. His father, James William Welch, M.D., practiced medicine in Cuba for more than five decades. His grandfather, James Knox Welch, M.D., settled in Cuba after the Civil War. Cuba, Illinois, is a small, rural farming community in west-central Illinois, where I grew up. Like many small towns, it boasts a central square with a ban...
4 comments
Read more

Vintage Vinyl

In this episode - Vintage Vinyl . . . Turntables are making a big comeback; why? Listening to music should be a multi-sensory experience. Harmony, rhythm, and the deep expression of emotion. Like a warm, gentle rain in the springtime cascading around you the room is filled with a resonant, rich, melodic sound. My emotions welled up, and tears come to my eyes. Ok, I get it, we need to step back to get some perspective here. Recently a visit to Lou's Records in Encinitas, California, inspired me to dig out my Vintage vinyl LP record collection. I selected the Carpenters Singles 1969- 1973 . This musical duo reigned from 1969-to 1982 with the rich, full melodic voice of Karen Carpenter. They were one of the biggest-selling groups of the 1970s. "No fewer than ten of their singles went on to become million-sellers, and by 2005 combined worldwide sales of albums and singles well exceeded 100 million units." The tactile sensory experience of music begins with the album cover it...
4 comments
Read more