Another glorious day -- fall in D.C. is something else. All of us got up early and out of the house to volunteer for a cleanup of our neighborhood park (the one we walk to that is five minutes away). It's owned by the community, not the county, and both Drew and I signed up to prepare it for winter -- weeding, mulching, raking leaves and bagging them. We got there around 10 and people seemed very glad to see us. Drew set about raking leaves and I began weeding and then spread mulch. Rachel was a champ -- she started raking leaves with a rake twice her size, then helped the volunteers with the wheelbarrows of mulch, wheeling the wheelbarrows when they were empty and grabbing a handle when one was full.
We were there for about 90 minutes, then I headed home to shower and head to a housewarming for my work colleague, Matt, whose townhouse burned down last year. He lost almost everything he owns, but he -- at 57 -- is looking at this as a means of starting anew. He's divorced and one of his two twenty something daughters lives with him. He got to choose colors, finishes, fixtures, etc. for his new place, and it looks terrific; he has very good taste in wall colors and furniture (even if the giant-screen TV and three-section reclining couch scream "Bachelor's Pad!").
It took me 90 minutes to drive there -- he lives in Maryland -- after getting lost a few times, and coming back I had a long wait for a toll both (ugh, need to get an EZ-Pass), and got to Great Falls just in time to meet Drew and Rachel and the rest of our synagogue for a hayride, campfire, hot dogs, s'mores, pumpkin-patch visiting, and a lovely havdalah ceremony to close out Shabbat, with one of the rabbis playing songs on his guitar and the havdalah candle lighting the night while I sat in front of one of the campfires. I was perfectly warm and content, and it was a lovely way of finishing up the weekend, since I do go back to work Sunday.
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