New Year's Eve Weekend: Teenagers Spent the Afternoon Discussing Algorithms of Rubik's Cube

 A part of the New Year's Eve weekend was spent with my brother's family. During the afternoon, I was caught up in a discussion among my eleven and twelve-year-old g'nephews and nieces about the various algorithms used to solve Rubic's cube, and which was the best. In the picture above Luke is explaining to his mom how the version of the cube he has in his hands is vastly superior to the one she is holding (off-screen), which happened to be one of the original cubes. In the background, Knox is showing his sixteen-year-old cousin how to solve the scrambled cube. 

Then it was time for the annual Wearin' o' the Funny Christmas Hats picture. After each person has selected one from baskets of about a hundred or so silly hats, we group up for a picture. The man in the green hat is one of my nephews, Cyril, along with his wife, Molly. My own hat had a kind of velvet-covered spring with a dangly star that reminded me of The Grinch's dog.

The girl above is my g'niece Audrey, while the boy below is her cousin, Lennex. Teenagers.

And these are just a few of the faces who make up my family. My niece, Theresa, has a large family of her own. We really don't have a place large enough to accommodate everyone, should we decide to all be in one place, at one time.

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving with the Wrights ... About Half of Them

 

Ordinarily, I think of my family as rather small ... until Thanksgiving, when just the relatives from my brother's side comprise a gathering of almost two dozen people, ten of whom are teenagers, or nearly so. It was decided this year that the cut-off age to sit at the kids' table was forty-one, meaning Joseph was finally allowed to sit with the other grown-ups. (Really, we need a sarcasm font.)

The teens are all involved in sports ranging from taekwondo to lacrosse to wrestling. It should be no surprise that they wanted pictures of themselves in a pyramid. It began innocently enough when my nephew, Joseph, posed for a picture with his wife Laura, and their triplets, Knox, Lennex, and Tallulah.

Then Joseph made a stack with his brother's daughters, Audrey, Kinley, and Maggie plus a couple unidentified stragglers (i.e., grandnephews).

The girls then contemplated a pyramid because, you know, a mysterious cult called "cheer". As it turned out there were just enough kids to make that particular stack.

With some engineering guidance, the kids began their pyramid.

TA-DAH! In no particular order, they are Knox, Lennex, Tallula; Audrey, Kinley, Maggie, Dylan, Declan; Luke and Savannah.

Happy Holidays! May you find cheer in the coming year and always thereafter.

Autumn Is Here, For Sure

 Yesterday, my big adventure was to go downtown for a vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), as well as an updated pneumonia jab. Luckily, the pharmacy is located inside the neighborhood grocery so I could buy a couple packages of salad, apples, and a bottle of pop before I left for home.

The walk from the bus stop to the store passed under a line of lovely trees displaying their response to the changes in light and temperature. Consequently, I walked along with my eyes taking in the little cathedrals of color as the sun passed through the jewel-like leaves.

Eclipse On A Cloudy Day

It rained all night and well into Saturday morning. I went outside to see whether there was any chance of seeing (I use that term inaccurately as there was no chance of my looking directly into the sun) the eclipse. I did locate the orb's general placement, aimed my camera, and Poof! This is it. Eclipse seen on a rainy day, 2023. 

There is an indication of a bright circle with another, more shadowy segment in its upper left quadrant, so my image looks like the eclipse was at about forty percent. 

However, the first eclipse that comes to mind for me is Eclipse, one of the three foundation sires of the Thoroughbred horse. As a horse-crazy child, this animal's name was a fact that was incised into my brain in about third grade: Matchem, Herod, and Eclipse. I'll forget to buy toilet tissue or perhaps miss my brother's birthday, but I won't forget Eclipse.

 

 

Scuffed

Some days, the best abstract art can be found on the ubiquitous aluminum light pole. There are hints of gray in there, leftovers from the tape used to post notices of lost pets or rumage sales.

 

Autumn Gold and Goose, Er, Geese

 With comparatively few green leaves remaining and increasingly more of its "gold" falling into the Downtown Canal, this picture illustrates the passage of time spoken of by the Robert Frost poem I posted a day or two ago. Soon, all that will be left are the black branches, themselves awaiting the "first green" of spring.

Now It's Autumn

 

I woke up at 5:30 A.M. Saturday and I knew the inevitable had happened: my feet were cold and now it is autumn. Yeah, yeah, the calendar says the Autumn Equinox was just two weeks ago but it doesn't matter; fall arrives the minute I feel the need to put on a pair of warm socks. When my feet are cold, I'm cold all over so there'll also be an extra blankie across the foot of my bed so the rest of me feels, well, just right. This situation will remain until near my birthday in March when Spring arrives. Until then, it's socks for bed, socks to wear around my place - with slippers, socks with my shoes and boots.

Luckily, with the Winter Solstice, not only will the days begin to lengthen, but I will begin counting down the days to Spring when I'll be able to take my socks off.