A return to the Norman Rockwell Museum

 

This past Saturday would be a long day with my brother.  We had tried to get together on a weekend for a while for a road trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum.  Since I've seen the exhibition before, I figured that I'd look at things I didn't look at before, and let him wander around the place while I sat and took a load off my feet.

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I set my alarms to wake me around 8 am, so that I could be at our meeting place by 10:30 am.  It's hard to believe that I was early for a change, but I arrived at the parking lot around 10:15 and killed time waiting for him.  Unfortunately, he hit a lot of traffic, and didn't get to the lot until 11 am.  (It also didn't help that Google Maps gave him bad driving instructions.  But I digress.)

Once we were on the road, it took us a little over 2 hours to reach the museum.  (We were careful not to feed the bears.  We passed at least 3 "Smokeys" handing out citations on our way up.)  It was the perfect day for such a drive: traffic flowed smoothly and fast, there were no clouds in the sky, and it was the perfect temperature to drive to the Berkshires on an autumn day.  Eventually, we made it to the museum, and we went inside.

My brother took in all the exhibits slowly, while I picked and chose what I wanted to see next.  I didn't try to take everything in on this visit.  Instead, I looked for the exhibits that interested me most, and took some pictures before sitting down to ease my back pain.  Once we were done, I went to their shop and bought a couple of books related to the art of Mad, and then we departed the museum to find some lunch.

Once in Stockbridge, it was hard to find a vacant parking spot.  But we got lucky.  However, we did not find much in the way of open restaurants that weren't crowded at the time.  Yet, after a little bit of walking, we found a place to sit down for lunch.  (I won't mention where the place is, but as Arlo sang, "it's just a half of a mile from the railroad tracks.")  Sadly, Alice left the building many years before, and its current proprietors serve good food with mediocre service - so I will look for other dining venues when next in town.

After our late lunch, it was time to drive home.  I shared some of the driving duties, as my brother needed to nap a bit.  Boy, does he saw wood!  This wasn't as bad as I made it sound.  But he was tired, and he'd still have 90 minutes of driving ahead of him when he dropped me off at my car.  I was home by 6:30 or so, while he got home by 7:45.  (Again, he hit a lot of traffic.)  I was home in time to do laundry, but I didn't bother with this.  I could do it on Monday when I have some time.....

It's hard to believe that Summer is almost over.

 

As I write this, it is the beginning of Labor Day weekend.  Summer is almost over, and I look forward to Autumn and its cool breezes.  In a few months, Winter will come and most people will be complaining about the cold.  As for me, it will mean that I'll have to ration my use of dresses to blend in more with cisgender females as I go out and about.

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Now that Autumn is almost here, I have a busy few weeks ahead of me.  Soon, I'll be visiting Philadelphia with RQS, and we'll also be planning a few day trips in the Hudson Valley region.  We'll also be spending time at RQS's place.  This means that I'll be spending time in Mario mode again. 😔  At least, she'll be happy to see Mario after spending much of the Summer with Marian.

Given that I'm participating in a scientific study, I expect that I'll have to find time each day to play the games meant to help develop mental acuity.  This will present a minor logistical issue when I travel, as I'll have to bring a laptop computer with me instead of the Chromebook I am accustomed to using while traveling.  The only time I expect that I will have a problem allocating time to this project is when I go on my next cruise and do not have access to Wi-Fi for the week.

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The arrival of Autumn does provide me with some opportunities to get dressed up a little and take RQS to a few nice restaurants.  Hudson Valley Restaurant Week usually takes place in early November, and I'll be sure to wear some of my fancier dresses (and, maybe some sexy underwear) when we go out.  Hopefully, some of our favorite places will be on the list, as I'd like to get back to Crabtree's Kittle House, Hudson House Inn, and Xavier X2O's (among other places) again.

Hopefully, this Autumn season will bring a better change of seasons than we've had for the past few years.  When I was young, I loved the deep red leaves we used to see on the trees and ground.  Now, we don't see that many, as the Fall doesn't last as long as it once seemed to do.  Yet, I still keep my fingers crossed to once again see the beauty I once saw in my youth.