Tag: Sleepy Hollow

  • Blog Prompts/Ideas That Failed Me

    (These are all ideas for blogs that I had, but I couldn’t get them to work. So, enjoy some one-off sentences.)

    I have been too hard on myself lately. I need to loosen up, relax.

    We have a very hard time keeping plants alive in our family. Even the weed that sprung up in the planter on the fire escape just gave up, browned up, and has shriveled away.

    I don’t miss being a kid, and I like being an adult.

    I always thought Casper Van Dien should have been a bigger star.

    I bought one thing online from Pottery Barn, and they won’t stop emailing me. Good Lord, the Harris campaign doesn’t email me as much as Pottery Barn does.

    September 16th was the anniversary of the Battle of Harlem Heights. The battle took place in my neighborhood. I think that’s cool.

    I’m in a hurry for Thanksgiving.

    When we have small dinner parties at our place, we end the evening with drinks and a game of UNO.

    Yes, I am bald, but my love of hats predates my receding hairline. Not that anyone believes me.

    Another blog on my love of naps.

    Can I come up with a half-ass idea, and pass it off for a full assed one?

  • The Pumpkin Blaze

    There is an annual Autumn/Halloween event that my family takes part in, which is The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Croton-on-Hudson. My wife was the one who found out about it, and when my parents came to visit back in 2017, she got tickets for all of us. It was perfect for everyone, as we were new parents with a one year old, and the pumpkins were just flashing lights to our daughter, and that captivated her attention. And for my folks, it was just enough walking, and also something rather unique that they didn’t have in Texas. After walking through the Blaze, we drove down to Tarrytown for dinner, and then showed my parents the real Sleepy Hollow, along with the bridge and the Old Dutch Church of Headless Horseman fame. Since then, we try to make it out to The Blaze every year.

    This year was no different. Got tickets, and made plans with another family to all go together. Like most years, things happened and we left late. Traffic was awful getting out of the city. We were all late getting to the restaurant, and had to eat quickly. Luckily, the kids were all in a good mood – no melt downs.

    And it was worth it. The kid is getting old enough now that none of the jack o’lantens are scary to her, and even some of the joke carved pumpkins she gets and finds funny. There is still enough innocent excitement with her there that makes the experience special, and also transforms Halloween into more than one night of fun, but a season of events. (We apple pick, and visit a pumpkin patch as part of our Halloween traditions as well.)

    For me, I enjoy this night of being close to Sleepy Hollow, and the historic location where The Blaze takes place. Something about driving home through the woods of Westchester county, knowing that somewhere out there the Horseman is supposed to ride, and like clockwork every year, the kid asks from the backseat if Ichabod was a real person who escaped from that ghost. And then there is the connection of The Blaze being an event my mom was able to do with my family. We only got three years with her, to do grandma things, and let her shower her youngest granddaughter with attention. The kid has virtually no memories left with her Mim, but I have this one. And though my daughter doesn’t remember doing it, she was one after all, but she knows that it happened. We just continue on the tradition.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Farmer’s Markets, Premier League Starts, and Summer

    (Don’t jock my style!)

    If you were to ask me how old I feel, I would say 25 even on a bad day. But, there are a few things that do, unfortunately, remind me that I am a middle-aged man. The fact that my hair is gray, that I have enough ear and nose hair that I have to trim it, and I am balding. The other factor that most comes into play is my desire to go to a farmer’s market early on a Saturday morning. Not just a desire to go to one, but an actual level of excitement to be there. I think we’ll hit the one up in Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow one (weather permitting), and I hear there is a pickle vendor there, which makes all the difference. The real honest goal is to get out of the City, but to also get more fruits and vegetables in our diet. The person in our household pushing for this is our daughter. The wife suggested we hit up a farmer’s market as a way to meet the kid’s request, and now I am looking forward to getting a bunch of produce. I guess there are worse things to get excited about in middle age.

    The Premier League starts today with Crystal Palace v Arsenal! Hopefully, and I am biased, Arsenal will go down in flames, as that will fill my Hotspur supporting heart with so much joy! Tottenham’s team has stayed pretty much together in the off season, so I am expecting a solid run from this club, especially with Conte in charge from the get-go. I have read all the predictions, and it seems like the whole world is either picking Man City or Liverpool to win the league, BUT just about everybody has the Spurs down as third or fourth on the table, so to me, that says there is hope, if nothing else, that Tottenham can make a run at it. And let’s not forget that this season there is Champions League play, and that break in the middle for the World Cup. This is going to be a crazy football season, and I am sure I will be writing about all of it.

    Go Away Summer! I’m tired of your shit!

    (Say! If you enjoyed the refreshing oddness and thirst-quenching blandness of this blog, please show some love and like, share, or comment on this post. It does a body good!)