Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
A colorful fallen oak leaf.

On Sunday, Shawn and I decided that we wanted to go see if we could catch some fall color before it faded completely. The MN DNR color tracker told us that just south of us was at peak or just past, so we decided to take a trip down to Frontenac State Park. Frontenac State Park is just between Red Wing, Minnesota and a natural widening of the Mississippi called Lake Pepin. I have never understood, despite growing up in this area, what makes Lake Pepin a "lake." I tend to think of lakes as bodies of water that are, you know, separate from a river, or at least much, much larger than the river that feeds it? But, somehow this fat section of the Mississippi gets to technically be a lake. 

No matter how you define it, the view is gorgeous:


Image: the view atop the Frontenac State Park bluff towards Lake Pepin/the Mississippi River

Before leaving for the State Park, Shawn and I did a bit of reading in all the various books that we've collected on Minnesota state parks over the years. One of them recommended the self-guided interpretive trail and so we planned to walk that, as well as maybe the pine circle trail. I also really wanted to see the rock with a hole in it, called In-Yan-Teopa. 

We decided to drive down in our new-to-us Toyota, in order to test drive it. We are, for the first time in our lives, a two car family. There is a used car shortage and so we actually got this second car in order to hold in reserve for when our current Ford dies. I'm glad we test drove it because there was some concerning creaking that I'm going to have our mechanic look at when I take it in on Thursday, but we kind of forgot that our state park pass was actually affixed to the window of our OTHER car. So, when we got to the park, we had to stop in and get a day pass. Shawn managed to find a sweatshirt and several other things, so it was worthwhile. Plus, the ranger who was staffing the front desk was very helpful. She stamped my passport and gave us a great overview of places where we might see some good fall color.  She had just hiked everything in the last couple of days herself. 

She did also warn us, like all the books did, that there was "some elevation." I have come to understand that "some elevation" is the geological equivalent of "some weather." When Minnesotans tell you there's been some weather recently they don't mean a bit of rain, they mean a tornado ripped through yesterday. I now know that when a Minnesota park ranger tells you there is "some elevation," she means HOLY SH*T YOUR KNEES WILL KILL YOU CLIMBING ALL THOSE F*CKING STAIRS.


A blurry shot of stairs ascending the bluff.


But, so, Shawn and I took the interpretive hike, which did not have a huge amount of signage. But, it led to the lovely, flat pine circle trail which we enjoyed. It was very much Shawn's speed as it was a loop, had benches at every turn, and was under a mile. The hike back up to the picnic area, however, was where we first encountered "some elevation." This set of stairs was just one of MANY. We did get to hike along the old quarry site, which was fascinating, and there was an iron ring still pounded into the ground where a rock was going to be taken but was abandoned for some reason. 

At this point, even though we arrived fairly early (an hour or so after the park opened at 8 am), we started to encounter a lot of other hikers on the narrow trails. The trails were so narrow that we had to press up against the rock face in order to let people pass. 


This path is actually not as narrow as some, but you can see how there is just a wooden plank bridge over some areas. Now imagine that, only with the other side being a rock cliff.

The weather could not have been more perfect, however. We did see a bit of fall color here and there, too.


image: sunlight through yellows leaves

After the steep interpretive trail, Shawn tapped out. As she said several times during our walk, "Do not mistake me for a hiker," and so I left her at the picnic area with a good book (the newest Longmire) and waved goodbye as I headed off to see the rock. 

A good portion of the way out towards the rock was paved and perfectly flat. I missed a turn, however, and ended up tromping through the very busy campground (people were packing up to leave) until I found my way back to the upper bluff trail. That trail was slightly more rigorous, if only because the ground was uneven and the path narrowed significantly again. I got excited when I started to see signs for the rock...



image: a sign!!

But, I was disappointed by what I saw when I got to the observation area....


image: Yep, the uninteresting top of a rocky outcropping....

As I was staring at this very dull rock for several minutes a couple of other hikers came up and explained to me that if I wanted the view of the actual stone arch, I would have to hike down to the lower bluff trail. The ranger had been actually very clear (for a Minnesotan) that the lower bluff trail was steep "but do-able." Given that all we got for the stairs that nearly killed us was "some elevation," I figured this warning should be headed. Also, I was on my own. Shawn was waiting patiently in the picnic area, but it was after one o'clock and I still had to make my way all the way back to her. I decided that this was the view I was going to get. 

I did look it up, however, so if you're curious what I WOULD have seen, this is it::


Image. the view I should have gotten. (Yanked from the wikipedia entry on Frontenac State Park.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontenac_State_Park

We spend a good portion of our day on this little trip and it was very fun, though my knees ache a little today?  The ironic thing, of course, is that for all that walking not a mile of it counted for the Minnesota Hiking Club, because I never walked the official trail to get the password. At some point I will have to come back to log those miles, but not any time soon. Maybe I'll walk it next spring. 

Shawn brought along her old film camera, so it should be interesting to see if any of her pictures turn out. Also, as we were leaving we caught sight of trumpeter swans in the Mississippi. So, that was very nifty.

All and all, a thumbs up.

I have to apologize for being so absent from here, of late. I do, at least, have a great excuse: http://wizardstowerpress.com/media/wizards-tower-acquires-unjust-cause-by-tate-hallaway/. I have been frantically revising and rewriting Unjust Cause to get it ready to send to my publisher on November 1.

If you had previously read any of the Wattpad version of this, THIS BOOK IS SUBSTANTIVELY DIFFERENT. The main plot will be familiar, as will some scenes, but the revision I have been doing goes all the way to the bones. This will basically be a brand-new book. Plus, unlike what you read online (if you stuck with it), this book will have an ENDING. (A huge bonus, I would imagine.)

The exciting thing about this for me--besides the obvious excitement of having another book published--is that I've really been enjoying the process. Writing has been fun.

That's what has been occupying a lot of my time. I have also continued to work on the front steps. The very last thing I've been doing is repairing the--I don't know what you call it, it's a feature that brackets the four steps that lead directly to our front door. At any rate, it had been crumbling and losing bits. I basically stuffed putty in the big holes and am now painting the whole thing with a sealant + stain, so it looks more "intentional," as we like to say. To put it another way, the paint is hiding a lot of sins.

Meanwhile, I tried to blow up the house last night. We have radiant heat, which means that every fall, I go around and bleed air out of the radiators and fill up the water reserve to maintain pressure. The water comes into the furnace via this ancient pipe that long ago lost it's knob. So, I have compromised by sticking a wrench on the turn-y bit, which is really quite small. Last night, I had intended to add a tiny amount to the system, like you do, and then go around and equalize everything, and add a tiny bit more, etc., etc., until the pressure is at the right place and all the radiators are spitting water instead of air, right? EXCEPT. The wrench slipped off while the pipe was in full ON position. This is a closed system. So, I was frantically trying to get the wrench back on the tiny little knob and watching the pressure gauge skyrocket. I finally ran upstairs--screaming at my family to grab a bucket--and used the radiator key to kick open a valve. I let water pour onto our floor and ran back down to get the wrench back in place, which I finally did, but then we had to spend the next thirty minutes not only bleeding out all the excess water, but also turning the heat way up so I could be CERTAIN there was room for the expanded volume of HOT water. 

Mason, being the helpful Stephen King fan that he is, kept following me around as I stared at the pressure gauge muttering, "she creeps." (Which, for those who aren't instantly familiar, is a reference to the boiler in the Outlook Hotel from The Shining.) 

This is only made more perfect by the fact that I am a writer. I told my family that they should double check my novel progress to make sure I'm not just typing "All work and no play makes Lyda a dull girl."

So, that was exciting, to say the least.

In fannish news, Yuletide is open for nominations for this upcoming year: yuletide-admin.dreamwidth.org/64764.html. (Only for a few more hours!) I love Yuletide. If you don't know what it is, it's a holiday fic exchange--specifically for fandoms that have less than a thousand works on AO3. If you sign up for a gift, you also have to write one for someone else. 

I have participated for several years as a pinch hitter, though there have been years when I've been unable to snag an assignment because the ones I could write for got snapped up so quickly. In those years, I usually write a treat. This is basically writing only the gift for someone else. Pinch hitters have no official way of receiving a fic in exchange, though there is usually an unofficial site to check out what pinch hitters might enjoy. I normally don't bother, because my fandoms are actually quite huge and I have more than enough fics to keep me happy. I'm in Bleach and Good Omen's fandom. I'm not hurting for stuff to read. :-)

There's so much I love about pinch hitting, but my favorite thing is that I get huge waves of emails that give me a sense of the especially hard to fill fandoms. (To the people who want RPF of Shakespeare, I love all of you!) When I find one I can do, it feels really great. Plus, because of the nature of pinch hitters (someone has had to default on their assignment for some reason or other,) I have to write FAST. I take a huge amount of pride in writing well, quickly. I want my recipient to never know they weren't my original assignment. Plus, it makes me push out the envelope of what I'd normally consider writing for. Thanks to pinch hitting, I've written smut for the LEGOs movie, an epic romance for the Munchkin card game, and a Christmas story for the dating sim "Dream Daddy." This is a resume that makes me deeply proud.

Speaking of things that shouldn't make me proud, but which totally do. I'm going to be at Gaylaxicon next weekend and one of the panels I'm on is going to be a bunch of us playing Chuck Tingle's RPG in front of an audience. If we can't figure out how to be pounded in the butt by our own role-playing game, I will feel vaguely dissatisfied. ;-)

As it is "What Are You Reading Wednesday" here on Dreamwidth, I should also be reporting on the things I've been reading this week, but the honest answer is: ALL MY NOTES FOR UNJUST CAUSE HOLY CRAP UNJUST CAUSE.

So, that's not something I can easily recommend.

There's other stuff going on in my life, too? The good and bad news is: Mason won 4th place at the University of Minnesota's debate tournament last week, I got cool handmade paper from my friends at offcntr , and I have been following with much trepidation the events on Terry A. Garey's CaringBridge Journal. Terry is someone who I consider a writing mentor of mine and she's in a rather bad way--having been hospitalized now for over two weeks with... the doctors aren't really sure, but she hasn't been able to eat or drink much. I've been thinking about her a lot and continue to hope for better news soon.

But, thanks to my renewed friendship with,  rachelmanija I have been paying close attention to the changing of the leaves this season. I've been collecting pictures of some of the trees as they begin to turn all their vibrant colors.