Blog Shots: Meeker Trail & Hopkins Vineyard

As discussed on AsForFootball.Com over the weekend, Saturday's game against now #13 Wake Forest was one of the wildest, most emotional roller coaster rides I've ever experienced at Michie Stadium. The Black Knights put up nearly 600 yards of total offense and well over 400 yards rushing, and they maintained time-of-possession for almost 45 full minutes, but they still lost by 14 points -- on basically two plays. It took me a good, long while to come down. Even after sleeping on it, writing on it, and getting in a workout in the pool, I still felt like I was ready to spit fire and punish the guilty.

Sally came to my rescue, as she often does in these situations. It's her birthday later this week. As part of a multi-week celebration, we went hiking along the Meeker Trail near Lake Waramaug in the Western Connecticut Highlands, followed by a wine tasting expedition to Hopkins Vineyard.

It took some doing, but this finally get me back on something like an even keel emotionally.

Pics from the day after the jump.

Exploring Wine (Part 1)

Wine has become my latest obsession. It started when my buddy showed me the wine cellar in his new house, and seeing that cellar got me interested enough to investigate the possibilities of building one in my basement. This turned out to be a lot more involved than I thought that it would be -- more on that in a future post -- but I realized in the process of researching the idea that I didn't know nearly as much about wine as I thought that I did.

As has proven to be the case with any number of things over the years, a lot of what I thought I knew came from my folks, who weren't nearly as educated about some of this stuff as they made an effort to seem back in the day. It's to the point now where I'm considering rebranding my infamous "cook book" as something else entirely, Things That I Wish My Father Had Taught Me. 

Inclusive of wine content, I might have something like 30K words floating around in various spots on my hard drive. I just need to start getting it together and massaging into some kind of cohesive whole. Imagine a book exploring wine, grilling, and other aspects of the finer things in life but done in the style of my memoir, and you can maybe get a sense of the vibe. 

I always think of this project as a lifestyle handbook for Firsties about to commission. But we'll see.

At Chamard Vineyards in Coastal Connecticut yesterday.

In any event, this post is an attempt to start getting some of my thoughts down on paper. It's the middle of football season, so I have literally a million other things that I need to be doing right now, but friends, it's the side-hustles that keep me sane. Bear with me for a few minutes. Besides, I am really enjoying this exploration of wines.

Hannah’s Move-In Day

We dropped our oldest off at college this week.  Hannah is now a freshman at Manhattan College.  Go Jaspers!

I’m not gonna lie.  It hit me a lot harder than I thought that it would.  This old house of ours feels a little too big and a lot too empty right now.  Because Hannah’s the one who tends to hang out with me the most.  Over the past year or more -- since the pandemic hit, forcing Sally to start her own fitness studio out in our former garage -- Hannah has been the one helping me make dinner most nights.  She’s the one who always wants to tell me about her day, who goes to the beach with me when it’s 90° outside, when we’re all sweaty and miserable because our 100-year-old house doesn’t have central air conditioning.  Hannah’s the one who’s really been around during the pandemic.  I don’t think I’d realized how much I’d come to rely on her company until she was gone.  It’s all too easy to fall into these little routines of domesticity when you live together as a family.  But man oh man, once those routines are disrupted, you really feel it.

I did, at least.

Blog Shots: Pics from Block Island

Sally and I took a trip to Block Island earlier this month, located just off the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island.  The weather wasn't great for much of the trip, so I wound up spending a goodly amount of my time practicing photography.  

Some of those pics are presented below.

Memoir Teaser Trailer

Blog Shots: 4th of July Hike with Sally

 Sally and I went on a little hike yesterday.  

Well.  It was supposed to be little, at any rate.  We wound up walking four and a half miles.  That took us from the Short Beach parking lot in Stratford, around the lighthouse, back down to Wayne's Walk, and then all the way up to Russian Beach and back.

Speaking personally, I thought that was a good, long walk.

Anyway, I took my camera yesterday.  Pics are past the jump.

Looking For a Push

I think I need a writing group. Anybody interested?  I think it would help to have an audience and a little push to keep on track with a project I recently restarted. Nothing to do with As For Football or with sports in any way. I’m writing — well, trying to write — an old piece of crime fiction.