Questions with no answers

I wrote to S on Saturday night. The usual stuff. What I did during the week. I included some of the fall color pictures I posted here a few days ago.

I also wrote this:

"I've been feeling very sad this week. It's because of the Amish children who were killed in Pennsylvania. I know they are already starting their new lives, and the Divine has something special for them, but it just seems so cruel that such a terrible thing happens to these people. And all they can do is forgive, with their hearts broken. Isn't it remarkable that these people actually live what their faith is? The media seems astounded that they are willing to forgive the gunmen who killed their daughters.

"Oh, I know there's plenty of evil in the world, and I try to pay it no mind--to do so, I think, gives the evil satisfaction, and I refuse to give them that happiness. I don't know. I just try to be good to others, to be kind. I guess I'm just feeling sad and confused about this episode. There is more than enough sadness in the world. But why these people? I'm having a hard time dealing with this. Can there be any good out of this tragedy?

"I think I'm tired. It's late. I've just been thinking about it a lot. It's like those reasons I gave up on organized religion. Because I can't understand why a good and loving God would let this happen."

Earlier today, they held the funeral for the gunmen who killed five Amish girls in their schoolhouse. There are five more who are injured, and one may not make it. Here is what the wire story said:

GEORGETOWN, Pa. - Dozens of Amish neighbors came out Saturday to mourn the quiet milkman who killed five of their young girls and wounded five more in a brief, unfathomable rampage. Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, was buried in his wife's family plot behind a small Methodist church, a few miles from the one-room schoolhouse he stormed Monday ... About half of perhaps 75 mourners on hand were Amish. "It's the love, the forgiveness, the heartfelt forgiveness they have toward the family. I broke down and cried seeing it displayed," said Porter, [a fire department from Colorado who had come to Pennsylvania to offer what help he could]. He said Marie Roberts [the gunman's widow] was also touched. "She was absolutely deeply moved, by just the love shown," Porter said.

The story goes on the recount the incident, which took place last Monday. It talks about all the condolances that have been coming in from near and far and the money that has been raised--about $500,000 has been pledged--to help cover the medical costs of the five survivors.

Events like this ... well, I said it in the letter. Few things affect me as deeply as this.

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Colors of an autumn day

As I wrote last time, we went for a drive on Sunday to look at the autumn leaves and to record the spectacle with my camera.

On Wednesday, I took a drive along the same road, on my way to the U.P. girls tennis finals. I also visited my mom, but that was a busier day than I planned. More on that later.

Not much to say about the pictures. Fall is a very colorful season up where I live, and Sunday was just about the peak of the 2006 color season. Plus, the sun was out, boosting the color intensity even more.

I remember a drive we took a number of years ago, when the leaves were so vividly colored, they seemed to be in day-glo paint. The oranges, the reds, the yellows were so incredibly colorful. Once upon a time, working for a college paper, I called the leaves "Trix-colored." As in the breakfast cereal--"raspberry red, lemon yellow and orange orange." The copy editor didn't get it. When it came into print, it appeared "tri-colored." WTF???

Anyway, prepare your eyeballs to be dazzled. Here are some of the sights we saw on Sunday afternoon:





How'd you like to take a ride down one of the dirt roads leading off the state highway?


We found an abandoned road through the woods and decided to take a hike ...


There were recent tire tracks and ruts in the dirt, but few pass this way ...


If you have never walked a path like this, this is what it looks like when you look down ...


But of all things, look what I found along the path ...


But the fall color season passes quickly. This year, even more so. Here is a group of trees that we saw on Sunday ...

And here is the same group (I think--same general area, anyway) on Wednesday ...


Here is the intersection by that dirt road on Sunday ...

... and on Wednesday ...


And here is the area where that abandoned road meets the state highway, just before we started our hike on Sunday ...

The same area when I drove past on Wednesday ...


It's a reminder that all things pass, and one day is always worth two tomorrows. All I can say is that I'm glad I made it a priority to take my wife on a color tour on Sunday. On Wednesday, the trill would have been gone ... along with most of the leaves.

* * *

On Wednesday, I covered the girls tennis tournament in Kingsford, and our girls won the U.P. championship. It's the 12th time they have won the U.P. title since 1991. Definitely our most successful high school sport.

Once the tournament was done and the trophy and medals were presented, I went off to visit my mom--her nursing home is only about 15 miles away. I had a couple things for her, and I thought I could visit for an hour and a half, then head for home and have supper and a relaxing evening at home.

But my mom had other ideas. She wanted to go for a drive and to see her house--specifically the trees in front, to see if the leaves had turned red. As it turns out, they hadn't--just gold. But then she saw her neighbor's house across the road and asked to go over there.

We drove over there, and I knocked at the door and found out they were home. I didn't know whether my mom would be able to go inside, with her frail condition and walker. But she wanted to. She slowly made her way across the grass, and then we helped her very slowly climb the steps. Inside, they had coffee and talked for a while about family and old times. They had a great time. Then we led her back down the stairs, across the grass and back into the car.

While they were talking, I thought of somewhere else she would like to go. We drove off the normal path, down another road a few miles and wound up at the township cemetery. I drove in a back entrance and up a narrow road to a back corner where her husband and her other son are buried. I rolled down the window, and she was able to visit from the car. It's a lovely area. There are woods nearby and farm fields behind the gravesite. Very rural area, atop a hill. I imagine the wildlife make regular visits, too.

It had been over a year since she was down there. She got sick last September, and I'm the only one who has been driving her around since then. She was very grateful that I took her there.

Then it was finally time to eat. We went to Hardees, but this time I ordered the food to go, and we ate in the car--she got her usual chicken sandwich and strawberry shake, with a few french fries. It had been a mild day and a pleasant evening, though it was already getting dark.

From there, the car headed back to the nursing home. We visited for a while, and then it was time for me to head home. The sun had already set, and the last traces of daylight were nearly all gone. No deer problems on the way home, fortunately. I got back home at about 9 p.m. About three hours later than I wanted. With the way work has been lately, I was really looking forward to a quiet, relaxing evening.

But it was all right. My mom had a happy day and did some things she wanted to do: See her neighbors. See the gravesite. Ate some chicken that has some taste. Got to see some fall colors. She was tired but happy when I left. So all was well.

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Showing their true colors

You should be able to guess why I haven't written for a while. Work. Really, really busy all last weekend. And it's not going to get easier for a while. I have games to cover on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon for the next two weeks, which kind of shoots the weekend all to heck, since I need to have them all written up by Monday morning.

So I've been out of touch these last few days. I spent Saturday night with my wife--we watched a movie and then went upstairs for some serious snuggling. On Sunday, the Packers had the day off (they played--and lost--on Monday night). Besides, it was the first day in more than a week when the sun was out up here, and we both realized that the numbers days remaining to look at the fall colors was dwindling rapidly.

So we went for a little drive to admire all the color in the woods.

This is, of course, the loveliest part of the year up here. Fall is when the leaves show their true colors, especially the maples. But last week was dark and dank. My only last chance to get some leaf pictures last week was on Wednesday, when my wife and I went down to visit my mom and bring her some goodies she had asked for. I took some shots and sent them down to S when I wrote her over the weekend. She loved them--fall is her favorite season, too.

The sun played hide and seek that day, but on Sunday it was out in all its glory. After lunch. we found a road we like and got a few pictures along the way. I still have to work on the Sunday shots, so maybe you'll see them tomorrow night. (I had a game tonight.) But here are the earlier ones I sent to S.




Yes, the turkeys were strutting about, checking out the fall colors, too.

One of our reporters has been on vacation for the last week and a half, so that just means more stuff that the rest of us (the editor and I) have to do. Big staff, eh? I also had some special features I had to work on last week and an important game last Friday that needed a lot of coverage.

So it kept me hopping. Monday night, we watched the Packers lose. Tuesday, fortunately, was a lot slower, and I could finally catch up on all the blog alerts I didn't have time for over the last few days. I have a couple computer game-type distractions, too.

Anyway, I'm back, and I hope you enjoy the fall colors from the North Woods. More of the same in a day or two.

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