Autumn in Owatonna
I woke up pretty early Sunday morning and started taking care of some things around the house. Our washer had given up the ghost on Friday night and I had replaced it on Saturday morning. After that was done I went to the landfill with my brother and sister to dispose of all the roofing tear-off materials from my parents' house. Between that, engineering a Carleton game and hosting my daughter and future son-in-law's engagement party at the Depot, I didn't get a chance to test out the new washer, so the laundry had piled up. My wife, who is usually the early riser on the weekends, finally got up and we decided to go over to Owatonna to pick up a few items I couldn't find here in town.
After our shopping was done, we thought it would be good to take a late morning stroll through Dartts Park and Maple Creek Park. There's a very nice asphalt path that joins one park to the other and also follows Maple Creek. It was one of those perfect fall days and there were quite a few people on the path, either biking, walking or jogging. My wife's favorite season is autumn, so we spent a lot of the time checking out some of the early fall colors that were just starting to change. I also wanted to see how much the water had receded in Maple Creek. One of the things I noticed was that part of a tree that had come to rest against a foot bridge in Dartts Park had tipped over as the water levels lowered. It had been standing straight up a couple of weeks ago when I visited Dartts Park.
Hopefully everyone was able to get out and enjoy the weather yesterday before the Vikings crushed the Texans 31-13. In my opinion, beautiful fall days are one of the reasons Minnesota is such a wonderful place to live.