Summer officially ended about two weeks ago, and as if on queue, the leaves began to turn colour and fall from the trees within a few days. The rains started, the days got shorter and the temperatures dropped.
This morning, as I left for work at 5:30AM, I took a second to peer upwards into clear stary blackness, and to take a deep breath of the crisp five-degrees-above-freezing air. The half hour drive to work was serene in it's solitude. As my tires crunched over frostly fallen leaves in the dry, sometimes foggy, sometimes crystal clear darkness, temperatures ranged from two to six degrees. Yes, today is one of the days I mark on my calendar... just as I make special note of the first day of the year that the sunrise is cresting over the eastern mountains when I drive to work, today was the first day that my car's Frost Warning sounded as I made my way to the office. Wow, we're less than three degrees away from frozen puddles... fall is certainly here!
Daytime temperature have still been quite moderate though. Even on rainy days, I'm only wearing a wind breaker shell or a pullover, it's not really 'jacket' time yet.
Friday night Carole and I had dinner and a couple of drinks at the Nelson Cafe before hearding to G.M. Place to watch the Canucks whoop the Calgary Flames 4 to 2 in one of their last pre-season games. This is the first hockey games we've been to in a LONG time, and it was an absolute blast! Four beers for $30 was a bit painful, but since I had won the hockey tickets at work, it seemed worth it. When leaving the stadium, it was a beautiful night. No jackets required!
On Saturday,Carole's mom and step dad came to stay with us for the weekend, and we spent part of the afternoon on a lovely walk along the Coquitlam River, where we introduced them to geocaching. We found two new caches that day, which brings my grande total to 50 finds! Saturday evening, we had a casual family dinner at St. James Well - our local Irish Pub.
Sunday morning I went golfing at Meadow Gardens with Carole's step-father Brian and her step-brother Chris. I have only been to the driving range once on 3 years, and have not actually played a round of golf in OVER 3 years, but I still managed to impress myself with a 104 (I was lucky to break 100 in my best golfing days), and the only birdie of the day. I'm pretty sore now, from using muscles that have been dormant for years, but it was a lot of fun to be out in absolutely perfect autumn conditions (well, it started raining as we teed off the 18th hole...which was fine!) - and now I'm really eager to get out golfing again soon!
Sunday evening we had planned to host a family dinner for 9 people at our house. I had started a pasta sauce simmering in the slow cooker before I left for golf, and when I got home, I through together a 6-cheese lasagna big enough to feed a dozen people. I also made crab stuffed mushroom caps with bernaise sauce as an appy, and Carole whiped up a nice salad. After all the hard work I was a little dissapointed that the lasagna came out a tad bland (and perhaps a bit salty for my taste), but, while not up to my perfectionist expectations, it was still delicious and went over well, with most everyone taking seconds.
Carole and I took Monday off to putter around the house, and mostly relax. I think I've now fixed her scooter up to the point where it might be rideable soon (didn't look like the vendor was willing to issue a refund anyway) so I was pretty happy with the job I did on that. We watched a nice light movie (Hitch) and headed off to bed - ready to take on a fresh new autumn day Tuesday morning.... and here I am!
Posted by Calvin at October 4, 2005 06:39 AMwow
i thought you guys had it made with the weather... i guess i was wrong.... it's still summer weather here... i did get kinda chilly but no where's near what your talkin.... we reached a low of 9 but recently we don't drop much lower than 14 which is what it's kinda like in the summer unless we get a heat wave.... the leaves are still green and although i washed my shorts and put them all away oct first i was forced to bring them back out... i'm gonna bbq all winter too... are you guys going south this winter?
Hey Como, it hasn't been all bad - in fact, that was just a freaky chilly morning... by the afternoon it was 16 degrees out, and this morning on the way to work it was 13 and overcast, so I guess it just had dipped down overnight because the sky had been so clear.
We're trying to plan a winter vacation down south right now ... I'm not entirely sure that I can get any time off yet, but we're still gonna plan it anyway.