Fallen back

Going out in a blaze of glory

On this first Sunday of November the country is now officially off of Daylight Savings Time. The additional hour of sleep was much appreciated, and the prospect of darker mornings ahead is tempered by the fact that there will still be more hours of sunlight here even in the depths of winter than there will be in Lithuania. The bright light is also a welcome counterpart to my darker mood of late, the result of a combination of some as yet undetermined health issues and my usual struggles with trying to grasp a foreign tongue. The former will be addressed in a later post, but the latter is something I seem to go through every two years or so. Be it Mandarin, Russian or the current Amharic, it doesn't take long before I'm the class laggard. This time the lame excuse is that Amharic instruction isn't as structured as my previous language courses, meaning we students have to do more on our own to seek out listening/speaking opportunities (as opposed to having to do homework assignments every evening). *But the real excuses are the usual suspects - a shyness when it comes to speaking out in class (or with strangers, even though the Washington, D.C. area is home to a large Ethiopian/Eritrean diaspora) and a fear of making mistakes and therefore ending up looking like an idiot (I'm well aware that the only way to learn is through trial and error, but still...). Only this time I can also throw concentration lapses and issues with short-term memory retention into the mix. It's said that learning a foreign language is one of the best ways to stave off dementia, but...well, I've forgotten what I wanted to write.

The turning back of the clock this weekend has also corresponded with the peak of the autumn colors in this region, and fortunately the weather has cooperated with getting out to see the foliage. We recently had our bicycles reassembled for use, so yesterday morning I dragged my daughter outside in the morning to go for a bike ride into town, specifically to visit the Falls Church Farmers Market, which takes place every Saturday in front of City Hall. Only Amber had an easier time of things than I did. First, my seat keep slipping down, necessitating a stop at a bicycle shop to raise it back to its proper height, and more importantly, to keep it there. Of more concern, I found myself feeling close to passing out by the time we reached the market. Sampling some of the fruit slices on offer seemed to help, but there were still moments when I needed my daughter's shoulder to steady myself. Amber was quite the shopper, filling up her bag with five different kinds of apples:

Keeping with the theme, we also ate some apple cider donuts and drank some, um, apple cider. There was also the jar of caramel made with goat's milk which my daughter insisted we purchase:

The ride home was largely without incident, except that I had absolutely no energy at all when it came to tackling the not-so-steep hill leading to our apartment complex. At least my knees weren't hurting like they have on past recent bike rides, the result no doubt of the proper seat alignment. After lunching at home, my wife suggested the three of us head out again on our bikes to check out the autumn colors - her love of maple leaves temporarily triumphing over her aversion to physical activity. Our area is crisscrossed with cycling trails, and there was a lot to see as we rode on the old Washington and Old Dominion:

Shu-E was decked out in that characteristic Taiwanese sun-avoidance wear:

There were lots of photo ops for my wife:

Even power lines didn't detract from the brilliance of the foliage:

Par for the course, it was near this tree that the wind blew my bicycle over, pulling the chain off in the process and temporarily rendering my bike unusable. As is also par for the course, Shu-E was more adept than I at getting the chain back on so I could resume the ride:

On the return ride home, I again found myself without the energy to tackle even the smallest of hills. I also developed a pain in the neck, probably the result of awkwardly looking behind me while riding (years ago when I was out riding on a mountain bike in Tōkyō 東京, I turned my neck so sharply while checking for oncoming traffic that I ended up having to get cortisone shots). The health benefits of cycling.

Today (Sunday), while Amber was at her Mandarin lesson (with my wife waiting for her at the school), I went for a walk on another gorgeously sunny day to Upton Hill Regional Park, home to batting cages, miniature golf and a swimming pool, all of which are closed for the season. The park was the site of Fort Ramsay, one of 68 forts arrayed in a ring around Washington, D.C. during the Civil War:

But it wasn't the history that brought me there this afternoon:

This photo didn't turn out in the way that I'd hoped - I wanted to catch the sight of a church spire peeking above the trees as I looked down a steep road:

Virginia certainly doesn't lack for the colors of fall - the Blue Ridge Mountains (which include the Shenandoah National Park) are noted for its foliage, though we've yet to go there (perhaps the next time we're in the state, in around three years). Lithuania is also a great place to take in the autumn leaves, but few places on Earth (with the possible exceptions of Canada and New England) can rival Japan at this time of year. Shu-E and I were particularly blessed during our time in Yokkaichi 四日市 in Mie Prefecture 三重県 in the early 2000's, when we didn't have to travel far to see 紅葉, whether it was mingling with the crowds at the Forty-Eight Waterfalls of Akame 赤目四十八滝 or dodging a pack of wild monkeys coming down from the mountain on the way to Shōbō-ji Temple 聖宝寺. And don't get me started on Kyōto 京都...

I'm sorry, what was I talking about?

*According to a friend, I can also blame my ancestors. As John Cleese put it in A Fish Called Wanda:

Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone "Are you married?" and hearing "My wife left me this morning" or saying, uh, "Do you have children?" and being told they all burned to death on Wednesday. You see, Wanda, we're all terrified of embarrassment. That's why we're so...dead.