Caterwauling

Busy, busy weekend. I’ve neglected a lot of housework because on the weekends? I’m out. I don’t go anywhere special — mostly on unplanned field trips. I don’t care if it’s pouring (and for awhile, it was) — I just need to be in a thousand different places, preferably with sunlight. As long as I’m a moving target, I’m happy.

Folks who tag along with me either think I’m a mastermind at finding shit to do on a whim and others who are more planful want me to just pick a direction and go with it.

Anyway, because I spend way too much time cooped up with my whereabouts always accounted for (*headslam*), this weekend’s theme was to find something fall-ish to do. Back in Pittsburgh, I knew where all the farms were and could drive you blindfolded to a pumpkin-picking hayride odyssey. (I particularly loved Triple B for activities but Trax Farms for its amazing country store. God, I miss it.)

So I found the poor man’s Trax, Butler’s Orchard. I’ve been there before and was wholly disappointed in it, but I’d forgotten how much of a waste of time it was until I started driving there early yesterday morning and it was RAINING like a mofo. As it was a sucktacular day I didn’t get any fall photos, as I’d intended. But then again, all the foliage is dry and crackling and not even turning pretty colors, so I definitely don’t want to remember this crappy excuse for my favorite season.

Anyway, the store at the orchard? Sucks. I spent way too much money on their baked goods and pumpkin-type cake mixes and apple cider and shit like that, but I wanted decorations and that dream burst pretty quickly. There were no fewer than two dozen kids in the tiny shop, ripping around and knocking shit over. We were not awake enough to have chitlins underfoot and certainly not amused when they’d pick up apples and throw them across the store.

Not to mention, but this one family had four strollers and parked themselves in front of an area we wanted to peruse. And let me put it this way, I’m pushy. I’ll stand back and smile and sort of send death glares if everyone ignores me. But then I’ll just squeeze my way in and push you out of my way if I’m so inclined. These bitches weren’t moving. And even when I did get to the display, it was fug anyway.

What I failed to realize was that B.O. is right behind Wal-Mart. Where, of course, I found a punkin wonderland full of delightfully hokey crap that made my morning. Of course, I also got “scary” to accompany “cute” just with the odd variety of redneck shoppers there. My one friend who just left the area always told me to never, ever venture beyond exit 10 on I-270 (Wal-Mart’s around exit 16) or else you’ll feel like you’ve entered “Deliverance.” He’s right. *shudder* I usually try to stay below exit 4, and will continue to do so in the future.

However, we did drop down to exit 6 briefly to attend to the Rockville Music Festival yesterday. I mean, Blue Oyster Cult was the headliner and it was also a chili cook-off. (See “fall” theme — hot, spicy food. Mmm.) I really only tried the chili from Hard Times Cafe (very spicy and tasty) before heading to California Tortilla for takeout.

Now, I’ve rambled about all this to come to the conclusion, which is that I’ve climbed onto a kick where I want to bake spiced pumpkin muffins and make a pot of chili. Which, I’ll tell you exactly how that’s going to turn out. I bought canned pumpkin and evaporated milk and chili-starter stuff, and next year at this time, I’ll be going into the pantry with the same shit and realize, oh, yeah I’d had the same idea last year (and the year before that …).

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 9:13 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.