I’m on a much-needed vacation. We hiked for 2 hours this morning in a beautifully preserved area in Hingham, MA.
Stopped by here to see you haven’t had a new post in a while. I suppose everyone has been raptured again. This should hold you until someone else shows up.
This is an open thread….
ETA: I don’t know why it won’t allow me to click to embiggen – but you can open photos in a new tab to enlarge and see details
Alison Rose
Those photos look like postcards! I are jealous.
Dan B
That green lawn looks amazing. The lawns in my Seattle neighborhood are gold but not shiny gold after about 1/4″ rain since June. Almost 80° here but not as smokey, yay!
TaMara
@Dan B: It’s a beautiful meadow, filled with butterflies, birds, and lots of small flowers. ETA: It rained all day Thursday – a nice warm soaker, so I got to do my favorite beach rain walk.
Baud
Looks like you had good weather.
eclare
Very pretty! Do you have friends/relatives there?
BeautifulPlumage
Lovely picture, glad you’re getting some time to refresh.
The PNW is enjoying 80 degree temps and blue skies. There’s some haze from wildfires but not as bad as yesterday.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: New England is putting on a show this fall.
SP123
World’s End? Lived in MA for 27 years so far and still haven’t visited.
TaMara
@eclare: Both. Good to see everyone.
Ok, gotta spend time with my friends. I’d say behave, but then it wouldn’t be Balloon-Juice would it? 😉
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: it is, indeed.
Nothing speaks “New England” to me more than brightly colored leaves on trees and the ground next to a stone wall.
Kelly
@BeautifulPlumage: I swam all the way across our swimming hole on the Little N Santiam river yesterday. Air temp 91 made it seem like a great idea. Water temp 61was a bit challenging.
brendancalling
My now-suddenly-an-adult son just went home to Montreal after a really good visit. I got the blues, but it’s OK. I’m working on a new song, the birds are playing the Dallas Cowpies, and I’m grilling up some cajun dry rub chicken for sandwiches tomorrow.
Danielx
Leaves on fire (figuratively) in central Indiana, totally gorgeous. No rain in a month and hard freeze tonight, so probably gone in a week.
MazeDancer
My sister lives in the northernmost tip of MTG’s district.
She and a bunch of Dem Ladies had a fundraiser for Marcus Flowers.
They said he was smart, informed, confident, clever, poised. And really, really handsome. Just watched what I could of debate. All true.
MTG was crazy beyond crazy in the debate. Screamed, interrupted, lied, lied, lied. Her nasal voice is painful to hear as it screeches.
All she wants to do is hate. At full, nasal pain volume.
Write PostCards, people. If she is Speaker, we will never survive.
Baud
@MazeDancer:
It’s nice to hear we have good people even in deep red districts.
JPL
@MazeDancer: The district is red and won’t change, but It might generate votes for other democratic candidates. That’s a good thing. Thank her for her activism.
realbtl
I’m in the SF Bay area eastern division for a short visit with my 2.5 yo grandson, daughter and husband. I lived here 1980-2000. It’s become a zoo and I’m glad I moved to Montana.
Dan B
@MazeDancer: Flowers said that his message had MTG rattled at the debate. He is handsome, especially with his beard, and in every photo he looks supremely calm.
JPL
@Dan B: MTG is up by forty, so not likely. As I said above though is dems vote in that district, it will help Warnock and Abrams.
jeffreyw
JPL
@JPL: And another thing, it’s probably more important to turn out the vote in “blood red” districts.
BeautifulPlumage
@Kelly: yikes, that water temp is more of a “splash in & run out” to cool off, although 91 is way too hot. I imagine you have beautiful surroundings in that area, though.
ian
Raptured again? Is that where everyone went back in May?
Baud
@JPL:
I agree.
Almost Retired
Beautiful photos. We just got back from a four week trip celebrating my wife’s liberation from the tyranny of the academic calendar (ie retirement). So for the first time in 40 years we could travel in October and see real Fall colors (yes, I know there are pockets of color in So Cal). UP Michigan, Northern Wisconsin and the Minnesota Lake Superior shoreline. It was wonderful, although if I never see another bin of biscuits and gravy at a chain hotel breakfast I will die happy. New England next year! Also spent an absolutely delightful week in Chicago, which turned out not to be the dystopian crime-ridden hellscape portrayed on conservative media. Los Angeles seems kind of brown after a Great Lakes Fall.
Geminid
@Dan B: Flowers wears that big, black cowboy hat well. He’ll likely bring out some extra voters.
And 14th CD Democrats need the morale boost. It must be depressing to be represented by that horrible hoyden.
Hungry Joe
MY Padres came back and blasted the Dodgers out of the playoffs last night. Of the seven playoff games so far — against the Mets and the Dodgers — five have been nerve-shredding classics. Baseball can be so boring that your eyeballs go numb, but when things are locked in, man oh man.
The Mets and the Dodgers are clearly better teams, on paper and all year long on the field, but the Padres have played a week and a half of near-perfect baseball. A whole lot of the city and county of San Diego are at this moment ecstatically insane. Feels pretty damn good.
Suzanne
I have been feeling exceedingly tired today. Took a nap. Went to make some coffee, only to find out that the coffeemaker is borked. Ordered a new one, and decided to splurge a little bit and get a good one, since it is the most popular appliance in the house. I am going to Philadelphia for a few days, and it will arrive from Amazon while I am gone. I told Mr. Suzanne when to expect it and to open it while I’m gone. He then asked, “How much was it?”, to which I replied, “I don’t care.”
J R in WV
Here in the western lowlands of WV we have fall in progress. Highs in the mid-60s, lows in the low-to-mid 40s. Window in the bedroom cracked open at night, but a pile of covers on the bed. Sheet, quilt, down comforter, and sneaky dogs sometimes crawl in between us. Not so often lately, as we discourage that when we wake up and find them looking at us, hoping for pets.
Leaves just beginning to turn, nuts falling on the roof and solarium, make a loud crack that can startle one. Retirement is wonderful, naps almost any afternoon. Early to bed, late to rise, also too. Some rain today, not much…
Almost Retired
@Hungry Joe: ….not so happy 125 miles up the road…
eclare
@Almost Retired: Four weeks! Sounds wonderful!
BC in Illinois
Beautiful day here in St. Louis. Went to the St Louis Zoo with five g’kids. Watched a 500-pound Sea Lion do a moderately impressive show — wave, walk, stand on flippers, throw frisbees, catch fish. Then went to pet and feed the stingrays . Last chance to see some of the sights before their tickets expire at the end of October.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Coffee is essential (see link below), and it’s worth paying a bit extra for a good coffee maker, whatever your definition is of that.
https://www.playthingmarket.com/collections/lovely-cats/products/cat-vintage-tin-sign31?spm=..collection_574e0780-47b5-41b3-a2ea-8e1ccc8ad13d.collection_1.10
UncleEbeneezer
@Almost Retired: The Eastern Sierra has the lovely golden aspens (OTR post coming soon!) but yeah, there is nothing quite like the East Coast (especially New England) Fall Colors with all the oranges and reds.
Suzanne
@UncleEbeneezer: I am absolutely enthralled with the autumn colors here in western PA. Absolutely the best thing about living here.
Mr. Suzanne and I went to an outdoor music performance last night, and it was definitely chilly enough that that will be the last once of those this year. When we left, we had a hard time getting out of the area because there were ambulances and fire trucks all over the place. Turned out that there was a mass shooting just a few blocks from where we were. UGHHHHHH. Not the best part about living here.
Immanentize
@JPL: or maybe some Republicans will not vote out of disgust.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: Oh damn no joke. I read one of those health pieces last week that said some bullshit like, “talk to your doctor if you feel like you need coffee to stay alert throughout the day”, and I was like, “BIIIIIIIIH SHUT UP. I drink coffee to endure late capitalism”.
And to poop. Late capitalism and poop.
Jackie
@MazeDancer: I’m going to try watching it on YouTube. I don’t know how long I can handle her nasal twanginess. I do want to watch how Flowers did.
Steeplejack
Bullitt (1968) coming up on TCM at 8:00 EDT. Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset.
mrmoshpotato
Very nice. Enjoy your vacation.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: Bullit’s a good one. I think it was very influential, both for the cop genre and more generally.
Geminid
@Geminid: And, it turns out bassist Carole Kay played on Bullit soundtrack.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
Robert Duvall has a tiny part as a cabdriver.
prostratedragon
@Steeplejack: Shucks, I missed it. One of the prime San Francisco treats, and an example of the apparent staging principle that there’s always a tango.
Don’t know where else to put this. Fun halftime treat at yesterday’s football game in Ann Arbor: The Jazz Orchestra of Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis join the University of Michigan Marching Band
Steeplejack
@prostratedragon:
The good thing about seeing movies on TCM, even if it’s one like Bullitt that you think you’ve seen a hundred times on different cable channels, is that TCM has pristine prints and no commercials (and correct aspect ratio—no small thing).
Spc
@SP123: definitely world’s end. Mass native for three decades and also never stepped foot there. In general didn’t spend that much time on the near south shore beyond the Blue Hills.
JustRuss
@Kelly: I motorcycled up to Falls City with a friend today, watched some kids jumping into the pool below the falls. I suspect there’s a reason they were wearing wetsuits.
LiminalOwl
@lowtechcyclist: I did not need to see that site. (Well, I guess I did. Now some of my holiday shopping is done… thank you, I think.)