No, I'm not talking about the voice of the voters. We all deserve a breather on that topic, don't we? I'm talking about the change of seasons! Watching the seasons change here shares a few similarites to home. Mandeville reminds me of Winchester in that:
- October's bright blue weather is inspiring and it extends into November.
- Rabid and colorful football fans (the Vols got nothin' on the Tiger fans! Here, school bus drivers even decorate their windshields with bright blue and gold lights for the daily route to get folks psyched for the weekends!).
- Halloween fun (even more magical here thanks to gas lights adorning the entrances of most homes and people who have trunkloads of costumes that they find excuses to wear throughout the year!)
- Fall food. In TN, it's turnip greens and BBQ (we miss both more than you can imagine). Here in Louisiana, the shrimp is amazing right now and 'r' months truly produce the best, saltiest oysters I've ever tasted. Satsumas (Louisiana grown citrus even better than clementines) are ripe and there must be a bumper crop this year), mirliton (funky green vine fruit that look like wrinkly pears...pronounced 'mella-ton' by the locals) are everywhere. Paul had my first attempt at cooking mirliton for his birthday in the form of a pie which was a huge hit. Now I've found out that I can also stuff them with shrimp, crawfish, etc. just like they do eggplant down here. The epicurian adventure continues!
- Rec soccer is winding down until spring season. Meanwhile, cross country runners, after enduring scorching heat during training, enjoy faster times as cool weather arrives. Zeke's 3 mile best is 19:09 (yes, he lettered his freshman year!), while Jacob's 2-mile is 13:50 and Ellie's mile is 7:40.
And now the differences:
- The colors here are just nowhere as wonderful as home. Some gold in the bushes give me some comfort, but I miss the reds and oranges of the maple trees.
- Swim practice outdoors makes for freezing arms when they leave the heated pool to perfect the strokes. Last week was really chilly and the coaches were bundled up alongside the heated pool. This week is much more 'normal' I've been told, and should produce less whining from the kids.
- My first launch at my new gym left me longing for home where everyone in class knows everyone else by name and the party afterward was fun. Here, all we did was change the music and add balloons to the room.
- School soccer is just beginning and will play thru the winter.
- High school homecoming dance was more like a prom with corsages, ties, sportcoats, and dining groups of friends who attended dinner at parent's homes. The parents provided the food and table service, and were rewarded with watching a group of young adults grow into their social graces.
- We talk of hurricane season ending and putting the trampoline back up instead of lowering the storm windows and checking the gas heat in preparation for winter.
Tears continue to appear frequently as we remember our 'Henry kitty'. Always a street savvy tiger, he must've been chasing an armadillo or raccoon on his last adventure a few weeks ago. His loss left a hole in our hearts and a very lonely place at the house. Since that time, we have now adopted little 'Lafitte', whom Zeke named in honor of the bayou pirate, Jean Lafitte. He's very sweet and is proving to be as fearless as Henry was.
Etc. (I waited too long between postings, didn't I?): ROTC experiment didn't turn out so well, so Zeke returned to PE class. Guess he's just not a military kind of guy as he gladly turned in his uniform. We love the 9-week grading period, and we've determined that French is a very difficult language for the hillbilly kids from Tennessee, but they're hanging in there. Honor students are treated to breakfasts which gets them excused from class, which is always a good thing especially when you like to eat as much as Jacob does. (I think he inherited my dad's love for all food!) Ellie is still working hard on upcoming Nutcracker performance and is a becoming a real 'long-division whiz'. Paul's work has him much busier than he would like to be and he'd love to have some of those engineer geniuses he counted on in TN down here to help him! Meanwhile, I took a 'field trip' with a friend who manages a barge company over to Mobile last week to learn a bit about the barge industry. It's only an 90 minutes to Mobile! How cool is that?
We're looking forward to Thanksgiving back home, hanging out with our family and friends, making ourselves sick on BBQ and turnip greens, and going up on the mountain to enjoy some change in elevation. After all, we look forward to interstate overpasses around here to provide elevation change! Bicycling is flat out fast but I'm missing the curves and hills! I guess you can take the girl out of the hills, but you can't take the hills out of the girl!
