Waiting on pink leaves

The windows are open because it finally cooled off enough to turn the air, even the fan, off and let the hints of fall blow in through the screens.
Car tires click over the sectional cracks in the concrete on Avenue E as motorists try to stay under the speed limit between my house and the neighbors' across the street. Drying leaves crack under the tires turning onto E from my corner. A mower hums cattycorner, and just a whiff of cut grass finds the inside of a nostril still free of allergic congestion.
A large exhale gives me a reminder that fall is close at hand. My favorite season.
It makes me want to be outside.
I hate, absolutely hate, being in the house when it’s in the upper 60s. The oxygen just seems more potent and effective, and it pulls me outside. Anything outside. A porch works. But music and football on a Friday night is a must. Central Lee is playing great ball under Coach Doug Dodds, and Fort Madison is inexperienced and rebuilding.
This Friday I didn’t get out of the way of a couple players who entered the frame of my camera. As I held the shutter down, an Assumption boy chasing a Bloodhound to the sideline came by me at full speed and caught my left forearm and my shin. The shin is bruised and swollen, but the arm is unscathed. The shin takes me back to softball days when I could barely walk after taking grounders and low throws off the shin at 1st.
As I sit with the laptop typing on a quiet Saturday afternoon with the breeze wafting in the west windows and doing everything I can to stay away from politics this weekend, I can’t help but write about how relaxed things are today.
I have to get ready to go shoot pictures of Melissa Freesmeier and Amy Cook’s volleyball teams tonight. They tangled in the SEI Superconference tournament finals at SCC. I’m sure John Bohnenkamp wrote something about it that you can find here, too.
But I’m relaxed after the rough week gone by. Sometimes when you talk, people listen and talk back. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t write, I mean some things have to be said. But then we breathe and reflect and frame our experience correctly, evaluating the value of what has transpired. We put things back together and we move forward.
For me, that’s fall football, crockpot food, sharing a few emails with Brian Mendez about his 11th-ranked girls' cross-country team. And I don’t think we’ve seen their best yet, and they just beat No. 3 Solon by 2 points Saturday northeast of Cedar Rapids, and these girls could see something special this year in the leaves.
Last week I stopped and rifled through the clearance racks at Williamsburg’s outlet mall looking for fall stuff cheap. All the shorts were put away so that blows, but I did find some fall gear that didn’t break the bank. Under Armor and Nike, pull overs, button ups, and athletic pants.
I’m ready for tailgating. I think it’s time for an Iowa game, at least a trip to Iowa City. Might be fun to just tailgate and turn the game on the radio, then just drive to the niece's for a nap or Wig & Pen for an ale and some buffalo chicken mac & cheese.
Saturday tailgating is one of my favorite things, but only with my brother’s family. They bring the weirdest food. Tailgating is supposed to be sandwiches and chips, cookies, drinks, a football and some personal favorites. The crazies go with the charcoal and bags games and kegs of beer. The real crazies have RVs. I wanna be that crazy.
My brother can find the craziest dip, spreads, crackers, pitas, salamis. Oh, I’m not complaining, and I throw the healthy aspirations out the window for an afternoon. We haven’t done it this year yet, but we’ve talked about it. It’s the perfect time of year to do it because it’s not so cold that we have to bundle all up. I fear that’s coming probably too soon.
But if you step outside today, take in a deep breath and see if the oxygen doesn’t work just a little better for you. We live in a beautiful town with a gorgeous bluff framed up by church spires and the colors of fall. They aren’t here yet, but with the first cold snap we'll get the beautiful warm colors of leaves dying, or in my case, the pink leaves of whatever damn tree covers my yard every fall.
I just had Gary Rung paint my house and he did a wonderful job. I picked the colors from a trip to St. Charles and I think it works. Can’t wait to see it against those leaves. Life is good.
And if you’ll permit me, I’m happy that we’re getting candidate forums going forward that have both parties in the same room. Voters deserve it. And today that is waaaaay Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is the editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.