Miser family update; autumn, election, and N-son

Life continues to be rich and full of autumn in the Miser Family Household.

And what a beautiful, full autumn it is!   The first picture shows the autumn moon setting outside my command center window, as I teach my 6:30 a.m. class. Now that the clocks have changed, I'm not teaching in the dark any more (at least, not literally; my students, on the other side of the planet, may well be in the dark figuratively and literally).  My sister-in-law sends a picture of the fall leaves on trees with snow capping the mountains in the distance.  My husband loves fall colors along the Hudson Valley rail line.  

And for my kids, autumn is even more visceral: Y tells us, "Pomegranate trees in Arizona are bearing both flowers and fruits at this time of year.".   Watson-the-dog loves chasing those squirrels through the beautiful leaves.  L2 has pumpkin spice nails to match her pumpkin spice coffee, and I-daughter says, "The weather turns colder and I start drinking tea again".  B-child giggles in the leaves, and N-son enjoys the Prewash-colored foliage; she's almost camouflaged this time of year.  

For our family, as for much of the country, much of this week revolved around the elections.  I-daughter had prepared for weeks in advance, gradually adjusting her sleep hours away from "vampire" to "sunshine"; she woke early on Tuesday and spent a very long day volunteering at the polls, helping count those ballots as they came in.  (She was not one of the people later counting mail-in ballots . . . and counting, and counting).  

My guy took the train to Philly and marched and danced with people there, several days in a row.  He said the rallies were upbeat and quite peaceable; there was a large police presence (and a smaller pro-Trump presence), but there was no riot gear or other scary outfits.  The only police wearing helmets were the bike cops.  

And for me, I admit that I spent the days between Tuesday and today with my fingers in my ears, singing "LaLaLa, I can't hear you."  I really couldn't abide dealing with a play-by-play obsession over evolving counts and percentages, and instead I doubled down on teaching my calculus classes (which was easy to double down on, because I'm teaching a double load right now; convenient, that!).   The big concession I made to November 3 was to sew two more letters onto one of my masks, changing it from "VOTE" to "I VOTED".

Today, I attended a zoom-based math meeting.  As it happened, one of the two keynote talks was on the mathematics of ensuring election integrity.  The speaker did a new-to-me thing that I really liked:  after she introduced the topic, she started playing a recorded talk, and went into the chat.  While her recorded talk played, she fielded live chat questions; there was a really lively back-and-forth.   Because this was a local meeting, I am friends with lots of the people who were in the audience, and it was great to interact that way.  And then, in the midst of all this, the participants started letting us know that the AP had called the election for Biden . . . fortuitous timing, for us all to hear this "together".    What a memorable math talk!

N-son, like me, mostly followed the election news from a distance; he spent much of the week working with friends of his.  Which friends were those, you ask?  Why don't we find out by reading his interview, below.  

Interview with N-son

What things were you doing a year ago that you're not doing now?

I was living with Sissy (L1) and Peter, and with mom and dad, but now I'm living in my own apartment.

Signing the lease for his apartment

The view outside his apartment kitchen window

What occupies your days, nowadays? 

2.  Some days I work with my friends Gabe and Asher for their company AAG ("All About Gutters"), working on fixing gutters and repairing them.   Other days I work with my brothers-in-law Pete and John installing doors.  I'm also looking for a more permanent job now.  

Feet up, after hanging doors for a shipping transfer station

Tell me a bit about your hobbies

3.  I like to hang out with Gabe and Asher when we are not working, also love taking my bike out and going for bike rides.   I love playing basketball, and coming to see my family every once in a while.

When you treat yourself to a bit of "me" time or special indulgences, what does that involve for you?

4.  I like getting basketball shoes (size 10.5) and accessories.  Also like getting bling [translation for  mom:  chain] and snap backs [translation into mom-speak: hats]

Five years from now, what kinds of things do you hope you'll be doing that you haven't done yet or aren't doing now? 

5.  I hope in five years that I'm working a more permanent job, I can get my driver's license, and become a better drummer. 

Describe some of your favorite household gadgets or treasures. 

6.  Bed, charger, phone, bathroom, pots and pans, table . . . actually, everything.  

Bringing home kitchen chairs that we snagged for free!

(I love how happy and content N-son is with his life and simple pleasures.  It makes me feel like I did something right as a mom!)

Are there any questions I should have asked you, but didn't? 

7.  In recent years, I've been wondering what it would be like to meet my birth mom.

Follow-up:  For much of N-son's life, he's been largely incurious about his birth parents, so I asked what has changed. 

He's been having many conversations with J-son, who is in touch with all three of his mothers (birth, foster, adopted), and it has gotten N-son wondering more.  He knows that contact with her isn't likely to be a fairy tale ending, and yet, it would be nice to know.  

So my guy and I dug through our adoption paperwork, and did a bit of internet searching, and found a likely postal address.  I helped N-son compose a letter to her, addressed an envelope, put a stamp on it, and sent it out. The mail is slow these days, we know, so we'll be patient.  A new adventure lies ahead, perhaps!

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our autumnal adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.