Winter Is Coming

 Tuesday

A visit to my ENT showed the ear surgery did little to improve my hearing. Now a CT scan is scheduled before he decides if another surgery is warranted, or just a hearing aid. 

 I had a lunch date with a friend afterwards, where we commiserated about the state of our government and what the future holds. Neither of us is optimistic and we are both reluctant to watch any news - it is bleak. I told her about my solo bike ride yesterday in which I was just pissed off, and rode the trail aggressively, not wanting to give up my space to anyone. I called it rage riding. Most likely I resented the fact that I had to think about where I was riding, what time of day, how safe would I be, etc, etc. As a woman these are considerations I must address every time I go out solo and I AM SICK OF IT.  Then a guy rode up next to me asking about my bike. I just glared at him while thinking "Wrong day dude, wrong day." He rode away. I'm usually much nicer than that, but not that day.

She didn't want to go on our planned walk afterwards because it was 43 degrees and very windy. I dropped her home and decided I wanted to walk, so I put on my tourist hat and checked out the Luykas Van Alen home as well as the Martin Van Buren Historic Site. I walked over 3 miles of nature trails and walked around these homes making plans to visit both when they open next season.

The Luykas Van Alen house - one of the earliest and best preserved Dutch farmhouses from the 1700's.

I tried taking the nature trail to Lindenwald, but it was overgrown and blocked by
fallen trees. I had just read that this area was the inspiration for
Washington Irvings' The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow so crawling through a dark
and overgrown forest seemed unappealing.

Signage about Washington Irving's time in this area.

The schoolhouse that the inspiration for Ichabod Crane worked in,
 is just a few steps away from the house.

Lindenwald, home of Martin Van Buren our 8th president, is just another mile down the road. 

I found these woods a much more pleasant place to walk. I walked all the
paths which were a bit of a maze. I learned this is called a bog bridge which would
normally be more useful, but we're in a drought so it was very dry.

Wednesday

The weather has turned much colder, but the sun is nice. I went to Trader Joe's for the first time to see what all the fuss is about. The prices were not bad and I managed to spend quite a bit. I'm keeping my pantry well stocked as Winter Is Coming.

Comments

  1. MargaretNovember 13, 2024 at 9:34 PM

    Interesting places to visit! I wish I remembered where my older daughter took me when I visited during her four years in New York. I know that several spots you've shown on your blog look familiar. As you know, I'm fighting ear issues too and the fear and anger from this election. In fact, I looked at Google and I possibly could get British citizenship since one of my grandfathers was born there. However, I could never leave my daughters and grandsons.

    ReplyDelete

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