An A-Mazing October Day

No, sorry... no misadventures on a bike for this Sunday. Oh no... against my better judgment, I let Patrick talk me into our annual disaster of a corn maze. Patrick, me and corn mazes are just not something that should usually be mentioned in the same sentence... until today! WooHoo!!!!!!!!

We spent the 80+ degree, late October Sunday (we're in Southwest Ohio... can you say "Global Warming"?) at Tom's Maze and had a pretty good time of it. It was not nearly as difficult as the other mazes we had tried in past years, so it was actually fun. No exhausted mom, no overly stimulated kid, no frustrated map readers desperately looking for a boy scout group to slip into just to find the exit. The maze, which according to the website has the distinction of actually being grown in the configuration rather than cut, is 8 acres of inedible corn (Patrick had to ask one of the workers and they explained that the corn grown for corn mazes is special maize). Broken into 12 sections, each section is outlined in a different colored plastic tape (and no, no tape was yellow and black with "Crime Scene" stamped on it!). Also each section contains a mailbox that held a piece of a puzzle. We were to find the mailbox, get our puzzle piece, tape it onto the appropriate section of the "playing card" we were given when we bought our ticket and then move on to find the next puzzle piece.


The most challenging part of the maze, well other than dealing with obnoxious children and the parents who paid little attention to their rude little beasts, was finding the exit. Called "Victory Bridge" it towered over the maze, but finding the right path required using the completed puzzle and a lot of luck for those of us who are directionally challenged and unable to find a boy scout troop to mix in with. But, we did it! And happily enough, we didn't follow anyone! We used more logic than map reading but, hey, we got out! And whole thing only took about an hour.

Afterwards we basked in the combination of our successful finish AND the summer-like October afternoon sun.

We also watched Tom, who is apparently the Tom of Tom's Maze, operate the hourly firing of the Chunkin' Punkin' Cannon -- some sort of old fire truck outfitted with an air compressor, large tank and a very long "nozzle". With great anticipation, Tom puts a small pumpkin in a chamber in the nozzle, turns on the air compressor for several minutes, whereby the large chamber fills and when released, the pumpkin sails high and far into the air, ultimately crashing to earth in a smattering of seeds and pulp Washington Irving's Headless Horseman would envy.

It was a very nice day. One in which my legs ached instead of my bottom.

Covered in Cat Hair

I've found a book that has changed my life. OK, a little dramatic, but it really has made an impact: Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split. Yes it's a knitting book... there are some really cute patterns in it, which I will get to in more detail later, but it's so much more than a book about knitting. The author, Laurie Perry relates her experiences of her divorce and dealing with the end of the relationship. Being all too familiar with a lot of those feelings, a book of just 198 pages of text (a chunk of the book is patterns and projects, and a few pages are provided with book club discussion topics), spoke volumes to me. I've recommended it to several friends who are dealing with similar situations. Sadly, there are way too many of us out there.

The book does include patterns for a few cute hats, a few scarves, some small bags and one huge cat toy. I laughed and I cried with the author, who, btw has her blog: Crazy Aunt Purl. Quite funny and inspirational.

Posterity and Escape

The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right moment of escape” -- Alice James

I seemed to have seized some sort of escape Sunday and now my posterior is in failure... Another visit to the bike trail, this time alone and I'm not sure I'll survive to pedal such folly again. I rode 10 miles one way, which meant to get back to my waiting citrus fruit and make my way home, I needed to ride another 10 miles.

There's my bike, and the 44 mile marker. I started at the 54 mile marker. The ride took me a little more than 2 hours. Along the way I took some pictures:


Not as hot as last week's ride, it was a gorgeous autumn day. I started out thinking some sad thoughts, but it wasn't long before my focus was on distance and pain. I passed some people on the trail, but more often was passed by "real" cyclists. Maybe I should look into getting real cyclist clothes, though my bike isn't anything like theirs either. I did get a compliment about my basket. She was a mom too -- I've got a "mom" kind of bike. Lots of dads out jogging, pushing their little slackers in those jogging strollers. Many people rollerblading, several people just out walking, lots of squirrels playing in the fallen leaves, a large vulture and one chipmunk also all shared the trail with me. This time Patrick wasn't with me, I missed his friendly greeting each person that passed us slow enough for him to wish them a terrific day. I was able to keep going, with fewer stops though since he weren't with me, and I did end up doing 20 miles.

My weekend was one of quiet, one that I did pretty much only what I wanted to do: sleep, knit, watch movies ("For the Love of the Game" and "Working Girl" to note a few of several) . I was going to upload a picture of the baby blanket I'm working on, but I think I'm still struggling with gauge and am not sure this is going to end up being big enough for a human baby... the yarn is wonderful. It's just lovely and soft, but I'm half done and I don't think it will be the right size. More to come on that.

These are stirring autumn days... amid the rustle of leaves like migrating finches

Today the thermometer read 94 degrees and I am sure I just awoke from the kind of nap that follows a sunburn. Patrick and I spent a few hours on a bike trail today. Yes, the bike rack made it onto the car and I have proof for the doubters in my peer group!


And, we made it onto a bike trail! 13 miles on the Terrace Park/Milford portion of the Little Miami Scenic Trail.

It's a gorgeous bike path and we entered it on Rt. 50 just beyond the turn for Newtown and took the trail all the way up to the little carryout in Miamiville.

Saturday I found Biking Ohio's Rail-Trails: Where to Go, What to Expect, How to Get There at Half Price Books and we're anxious to do a lot more exploring. Of course, I need to figure out how to make the bikes a bit more secure on the bike rack which is precariously hanging on the sloped rear of a lime on wheels. They tend to teeter too much for me, even with the addition of some of those bungie thingies. Now that we've done it once, the next time should be easier. I'm looking forward to time spent on the bike as well without Patrick... He's a bit too impetuous for a relaxed ride yet, but his enthusiasm scores points. I don't even want to consider trying to put Mickey in the basket and expect him to stay in it. He would look good in one of those baskets that Margaret Hamilton had Toto in as she cycled away with him to the Sheriff. Heck, he'd be perfect in that exact basket!

OK, just a quick blog to assure my friends that we finally made it out on a major bike ride (13 miles is no lark ya' know!). I know, I'm slow in adding more knitting stuff. I'm slow to do any knitting right now, but Christmas is fast approaching. I've gotten another step closer to felting my Booda Bag, so I think my next pictures and post will be a before and after. The colors are perfect for autumn, I just need to find what box it ended up in during the move. The baby layette items are still WIP. I've experienced my first quandary with gauge issues, so I've had to start over and starting over anything throws me for a loop!