let's get out of this country

today was gorgeous.  crisp, cool air.  bright blue skies.  the only thing missing was orange and yellow leaves.  fall is officially here but the trees don't know it yet.  i can't complain though.  it rained for almost two weeks straight and i am SO over it.  (poor mark got a raw deal for his two week vacation.. poor guy.)  i had wanted to do some fall-y things, but it's hard to be excited about having a picnic or going apple picking when it's gray and drizzley every day.  we did make a stop at the historical museum to pick up a xmas present for mark's mom at the gift shop and i took a few photos in there of some of the interesting stuff they had.

colonial candy

VA territory from the 1600s to today.

genuine confederate cash dollars.  for sale!

snakes on a train
(like any respectable civil war era photographer i might have arranged this photo.)

when i first moved here i was totally into the history of the city.  i'd drive around town looking at the statues and the old houses and cobblestone streets.  i'd go to the museums and historical sites.  coming from socal, everything seemed so ancient to me.  but i'm pretty much over it now.  richmond doesn't look like "richmond - the historical city" to me anymore.  it's just "richmond - the place i live."  every so often though i'll have a sort of flashback feeling and look through the lens of one unfamiliar with all this and it will just hit me that this place is old, yo!  i've always loved thinking about what things used to look like and how people lived.  i was never very interested in the political aspect of history or why nations did x or y.  i was always interested in the every day people, how they lived and what they thought about things.  seeing things like that confederate money makes me wonder who owned that and what they bought with it or what they were saving it for.  it's weird to think that i know how the war turned out and how their money was worthless, but the person who had that money didn't know at the time.  

last weekend the rain finally eased up by sunday, so we went for a drive in the country.  we had intended to go to one of the larger pumpkin patches in the area, but the placed was MOBBED so we pretty much left straight away.  no way am i standing in a mile long line to get in a wagon to go to a patch to pick out a $20 pumpkin.  the drive was good though - pretty fall scenery and tunes on the player.  i was in charge of the map, so i "tricked" mark into going by a dairy queen in the area.  gotta get my cherry dipped cone on!

superstars pizza for lunch

i can't resist a facehole photograph opportunity.

pumpkins

i kinda dropped the ball on pretty country photos.

i got kind of used to having mark around every night, so this week was kind of weird and quiet.  i kinda liked having the guy around.  here's hoping we come into a windfall and he can stay home every night.