Hi there.

Seasons have indeed swung up here…

It appears that the Northeast Kingdom is at the vanguard of that whole “autumn foliage” thing. The trees began to noticeably change colors here in the last week in September…

As you can see from what is still a moderately erratic drone flight, said foliage did get pretty impressive. I took this video 2 weeks ago and, for anyone interested in the timing of such things, I would say the first 10 days of October seem to be the peak of color. Sadly, as of the time of writing this there are very few of these golden leaves still clinging to their branches.

We did get out for another hike last weekend, though, this time with 100% fewer ticks and 33% more family.

And those leaves make exactly the noise you’d think they would when walking on them.

We actually had my uncle in town for the weekend and Daphne, having been on this trail before, acted as his Wilderness Guide so he wouldn’t get lost.

After the hike we were all pretty famished, so we headed over to the Littleton Freehouse for some lunch and an Oktoberfest pint.

Well, not Daphne, of course. She actually drank 4 pints of water instead, which had the expected outcome whilst on our way home.

As for Daph, her school seems to be regularly requiring us to pick her up because she’s coughed, or sneezed, or hasn’t eaten her lunch, or seems tired, or has too many strands of hair out of place… So that’s been a minor source of frustration.

It’s made it difficult for us to settle her into a comfortable routine since, just about the time we finish a full week of classroom instruction, they either require us to come pick her up and administer a COVID test and keep her home until we get the results (this actually happened yesterday), or someone else in her class tests positive and they shut the whole thing down for 8-10 days.

Anecdotal evidence from other parents across the country would suggest that we’re not alone in this frustration. I’m sure we’re all, her school included, doing the best we can to keep our kids safe and healthy. But that means Daph has had a lot of at-home time, which means a lot of swinging outside in between regular work sessions with Mom.

No, she’s not being eaten by a giant, pink, nylon fish; that’s the sensory swing we bought her a while ago.

But, other than not being able to get into a steady routine with school, she’s doing quite well. As I mentioned earlier, she really enjoyed the hike we went on last weekend…

And, in even further outdoorsiness, one of her Christmas gifts has arrived early…

Which has prompted an important existential, self-actualizing question…

Is Daphne regular-footed, or goofy-footed?

Now, for my non-surf/skate/snowboard crowd out there, this means does she naturally prefer to ride with her left foot forward on the board (regular-footed) or her right foot forward (goofy-footed).

Sounds silly, but this is indeed an important distinction. Her father is goofy. (I mean…you know what I mean.) And given that we can’t really discuss with her which stance feels right, I’m having to get clever with distilling this information from her daily mechanics.

Meaning I’m doing things like watching which foot she uses most often when kicking a ball, or when taking the first step on the stairs. I threatened to sneak up behind her and give her a quick push to see which foot she uses to catch herself…but her mother put the brakes on that little experiment. She’s probably right (typically is); I can see how that might end in tears.

Anyway, once I can determine her stance, I can attach the bindings and we can work on getting her comfortable being strapped into the board. This kind of thing usually happens by bouncing on the bed with the board attached.

I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

Talk to you soon.