Fall Forward

Coming home has been just what I need it to be, very relaxing. It's the end of the summer, so both my parents are back to teaching class and I end up being home alone quite a bit, giving me plenty of time to make my preparations for next year and tie up loose ends from the summer. 

Besides, I'm not really home alone. There is manic depressive dog, two grown cats who are sneaky troublemakers, and a kitten who had a broken leg until a few weeks ago. This makes for plenty of entertaining antics and all the nap time buddies I could ever need. 

Fall is definitely here, or at least so say the stores that have started to stock Halloween candy. Folks living on the island usually shop at only a limited number of stores, so we knew that fall was starting when the first Pumpkin beer became available. Trees in Ohio are still green, while New England trees have already started to change colors, but fall is still making itself known.

It's harvest time and there are new ripe veggies in the garden every day, plus about once a week we get a big basket from a friend's farm, CSA-style. In the past week I've made two big batches of tomato sauce, two of salsa, plus we've blanched and frozen lots of fresh vegetables to use late. Today we made stock and some of the less-lovely tomatos, last week's haul that hadn't been used yet, and a few new things as well. Now the whole house smells like onions and fennel! Delicious!

Yesterday was one of my other favorite Ohio early fall activities, Mount Union home football. Dad and I used to go to the games together almost every week when I was younger, but that was interrupted a bit by high school marching band. After being required to spend Friday evening watching football in all weathers, I usually didn't want to do the same Saturday afternoon. But now I get to watch the Raiders less often, so it's always a treat when I do. 

I understand football well enough to enjoy watching it. I still don't get a lot of the nuance; I rarely notice fouls and still spend an awful lot of the game watching the cheerleaders like I did when I was eight. But there's something about just the whole experience of going to a college football game - the crowds, the noise, the colors, the band - it's a rite of sorts. A moment where a whole group of people come together and focus their attention on one simple game. 

I know that this is true to a certain extent about many sporting events, but none come with the trappings of a good football game, especially in a region like the midwest where people really care about the sport. Plus it's something my dad and I have always done together. My mom and sister have never been interested. 

We won 41-17 against University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, but it was a hard-fought game all around. Soon I'm going to have to start focusing on a completely different type of football!