I (somewhat) embrace fall with open arms

My hand hovered over my light blue fall jacket for a moment, held temporarily motionless by unwarranted optimism before sense took over and I opted for my black winter jacket. While taking pictures of the Colby versus Spencer/Columbus football game the night before had not been bad, leastwise by mid-October Wisconsin standards, things had quickly changed. Clouds had rolled into the area and with rain in the forecast, it seemed likely that Friday night’s game may have very well been the last one in which I did not need to don my boots or stocking cap. The chill of winter was moving in and there was nothing to be done about it.

Despite the weather having taken a turn towards its annual ‘stay inside and watch football or read a book’ status, Mikaela and I had other plans. Plans which involved going outside and testing our luck against the pending rain, for better or worse. Typically, I’m not one for pushing things in such dire circumstances, but I’m a sucker for caramel apples and spending time with my wife, so our planned trip to Rock Ridge Orchard outside of Edgar continued as scheduled.

We had been there on several occasions before, but never to pick apples. They had three varieties available this past weekend, all of which I had never heard of before. When choosing between Cortland, Crimson Crisp or Empire, I went with the time tested strategy of just picking the first one on the list and hope that it’s nothing like a red delicious.

Bag in hand, we set out into the orchard with intent to fill it. With an expert eye, I scanned over the trees, looking for nothing but the best. Mikaela made sure to note that she felt she was less discerning with her choices, but she did a pretty good job regardless, perhaps a testament to how relatively pointless all my hemming and hawing over each individual apple may have been. Still, part of the idea is to just leisurely stroll through the orchard, so I don’t think my more time consuming method was necessarily a bad one. It was, despite my earlier lamentations and the gray clouds that hung overhead, actually not that bad outside; a pretty decent fall day all-in-all.

After filling our bag with some choice Cortland apples (which I am happy to report that they remind me a lot of a McIntosh, one of my favorites), we stopped by the cider bar for some drinks and a pizza, both of which were excellent. It’s a pretty cool little atmosphere that they have there and I would recommend checking it out if it's not too late. The rain eventually did arrive and while we tried to wait it out for a bit, it very quickly became apparent that the supposed 30 percent chance of precipitation was going to be a 100 percent chance for the foreseeable future. I really don’t know why I ever bother to look at the default weather app on the iPhone… Anyway, before we made our great escape, we stopped by their bakery/gift shop and some apple donuts caught Mikaela’s eye, so we walked away with a box of those and a caramel apple to split. A very fall activity for a very fall day.

Sunday was very much a different story, as I took advantage of the ‘stay inside and watch football or read a book’ weather and did just that, feeling just a bit bad for the Green Bay players as rain thudded down upon them for most of the game while I remained huddled in my Packers blanket. Personally, I thought it looked positively miserable out there, but I could probably brave it if I too were paid millions of dollars to do so. Probably.

Fall is officially in full swing, and while I certainly preferred the more temperate autumn we had been experiencing for the past few weeks, there are definitely ways to make the best of it. Fifty degree weather will probably seem downright balmy in no time at all, so I’ll have to try to enjoy it. Still, if someone wants to pay me millions of dollars to do so, that would certainly help. Just saying.

A C ERTAIN POINT OF V IEW

BY

NATHANIEL U NDERWOOD REPORTER