weekly bits #15

my grandpa's visit, the worst big brother season in years & trading eggs and bread with neighbors

Happiest of Fridays from my favorite month of the year, October. It might be because it’s my birthday month, but it’s mostly because it’s objectively the best month. Great name, great weather, cozy and spooky and full of warm treats. I’m a much more natural fall girl than a summer girl, as I’m a big fan of sweatshirts and soup, and when I go hiking, I like it to be a little crisp. Ah. We’ve made it.

We had quite the eventful week over in my household, so let’s hop in, shall we?

1. First, our hard-earned apples from our apple tree. They are very small, but they were tart and sweet and delicious, and pretty much the only two that survived. Between a late frost that killed some of the buds, battling the tree’s fungal infection and the swarms of birds that pecked away at 90% of our harvest, our dreams of bountiful fall apples were dashed…but still we celebrate! Sam and I ate these together this morning, and our victory, albeit small, still tasted so good.

   

2. Buckle in, because this’ll be a long one…last Friday, if you might recall, I awoke to a beautiful lightning storm. So lovely. So beautiful. Except that lightning storm was a preface to the absolutely torrential downpour that would face us this day, the day my sweet 84-year-old Grandpa was flying into Phoenix from Michigan to visit us in Arizona for the first time in many years. My dad and I loaded up into the car, thinking eh, a little rain! This is Arizona, after all. We can drive the two hours to Phoenix to pick him up in a little rain. Oh no, dear reader. Oh no. This was the heaviest rainfall Phoenix has had in seven years. We drove in inches of sloshing water, past some nasty wrecks and horribly confused Waymos. It turned our two-hour drive into a three-hour drive, and the airport was packed. Turns out, my dear Grandpa’s plane was circling Phoenix for hours before they decided to pivot and land in Albuquerque. Thankfully the plane was set to continue on to Phoenix that same night given the weather let up — my poor Grandpa! — but my dad and I were staring down a solid 10 hours in the airport. Demoralized, dejected, we had but one thing left to try…a trip to the bowling alley. I bowled horrendously, and the man who gave us our shoes told us he used to spend $600 a month on caramel macchiatos at Starbucks, a fact that still haunts me. It passed the time, we laughed, my dad crushed me and Grandpa’s plane took off from Albuquerque earlier than expected! When we finally greeted him, it was a glorious reunion. He had very high spirits for someone who spent an egregious amount of time on an airplane without actually getting anywhere for most of it. The drive home was grand — and, thankfully, dry.

   

   Me and my bowling ball. Yes, my front-facing camera lines are still there, and yes, I do still desperately need to get a new phone.

   Below the paywall, tales from my grandpa’s visit, my new hiking group, a scathing Big Brother finale review, trading goods with neighbors, an adorable video of Leonard’s play date and more…