orange leaves

The peak of the season has hit Broad Street - not only orange, but also red, brown, green, yellow - a splay of color which might be usual to people around here but to us, from the desert, is really quite impressive.

We were living back in the mountains - we had lots of pines, and a few other things, I wouldn't call it a lack of color, but it was nothing like here. My daughter misses the steep hills that we had to drive every day to get anywhere. Mountain cliffs with a cliff running up to the right of the car, and shooting down into the valley to the left. More than one close call with the ice and the lack of four-wheel-drive. Deer and elk all over the place. To me, I miss it, but I'm relieved to have only a mile of brick street and orange leaves to get out to where I'm going.

The biggest benefit to us, frankly, is that our kids are in school. Out there in the mountains, once they fell out, and the small mountain-town school couldn't handle them, there was literally nowhere to go. Here, they can handle our kids. They've decided, they're ok, they can get along, they'll fit in.

I walk four dogs, most days, on streets near the intersection of Broad and Mary. Selden, Cedar, Cherry, Prairie, Losey, Grove, those kinds of streets. Lots of orange leaves and bricks all over the place. Lots of beautiful houses too. Some of the Victorians are incredibly well taken care of. Some are gorgeous houses, but not incredibly well taken care of. I get a pretty good view of it all - I have to pick up these dogs' poop, unfortunately, but aside from that it's really very nice out there on the streets of Galesburg's historic north end. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I don't actually prefer the suburbs.

Today we went out to Lake Storey and walked a while in the woods. It too was incredible, as it too is at its peak. The lake is incredibly low. But, being from New Mexico, we can tell you, "you don't know from dry." The mere fact that there was water, there was a heron, there were fish out there getting ready for winter - it gave me a good feeling. Back in the Midwest, we are adjusting to the climate, wondering, yes, what happened to all those floods they were complaining about earlier, wondering if we brought some kind of drought with us. I can't answer that. I'll bring pictures. I'll decorate this blog. It's all about Galesburg, and at the moment, I'm grateful that Galesburg saved our lives.