Weekend Update : Indy, Books, Walks, Yard Work, Oh My!

It was a pretty decent weekend.

Thursday night the wife and I drove our 20-year old to the Indianapolis airport. She had a 9pm flight from Indy to Newark, NJ. From Newark she took a cab to Manhattan where she spent the weekend with her best friend. A trip long overdue and one very sorely needed for both of them.

After the airport we stopped at a store called Market District in Carmel. It was a pretty fancy market that had a produce section half the size of our Kroger store. It was massive. I snagged a couple 4-pks of beer from their truly amazing craft beer selection, as well as a couple things I forgot to get at the store the day before. I think we got home around 11pm.

Friday the wife and I both had the day off, so we headed to Goshen and hit my wife’s favorite thrift store. She bought a couple pairs of pants and we bought a dog kennel for our daughter so she’d have one when she picked up her new four-legged friend Celeste. Oh, and we also found out on Thursday that the kiddo was accepted into a new loft that she applied to move into. That was a huge relief to us and to her. I imagine that made the weekend all the better for her.

After we hit the thrift shop we drove towards downtown and parked near one of the trails in town. We walked into downtown and hit up Fables Bookstore. It’s a pretty amazing little independent book shop where as soon as you open that door the smell of books just hits you immediately. I didn’t have anything in mind to look for, but I ended up leaving with three books anyways; Fargo Rock City, The Zone of Interest, and The Cat’s Pajamas.

If you grew up in the 80s and was a fan of 80s rock and metal then Fargo Rock City would be your jam. Chuck Klosterman’s 2001 memoir of growing up a hard rock fan in 80s North Dakota is relatable and highly entertaining.

The Cat’s Pajamas is a Ray Bradbury collection. It puts together a bunch of unreleased stories. I know nothing about it other than it’s Ray Bradbury, but that’s good enough for me. The Zone Of Interest is about Nazis and concentration camps. There’s a movie coming out based on it directed by Jonathan Glazer(Under The Skin, Birth). I know little about it, but I’m sure it’s gonna be heavy.

Saturday was three hours outside raking, blowing, and mowing. Plus some fumbling around up on the roof clearing gutters and the roof of pine needles and pine cones. I’m pretty sure I pulled some muscles in my back and abdomen, but what are you gonna do? War wounds for the homeowner I suppose. Yard looks great, though. That’s what matters. Should only have one or two more of those days before winter takes over.

Saturday afternoon I enjoyed a couple of those beers and watched a movie on Shudder called Night of the Hunted. It was a pretty good thriller that kind of peter’d out at the end. Despite the so-so ending it was an enjoyable movie. The wife and I watched Where Are You, Jay Bennett? and a Tom Petty doc about the making of Wildflowers, two really great music docs. Kind of sad, given that both are gone now but still very good movies worth watching if you’re a fan of either.

Yesterday the wife and I headed into town for a Sunday morning/afternoon walk. We parked at the Warsaw Community Public Library and got over four miles in. We checked out the spot where the new YMCA is going in, then we circled back into downtown and checked out some empty storefronts where there’s new businesses going in.

Our town could learn a lot from neighboring Goshen. They’ve totally revitalized their downtown with interesting shops, great restaurants, and a pedestrian-friendly environment. Our town, unfortunately, hasn’t really figured that out yet. They’re on the right track(I think?), but still quite a ways away from revitalizing. There’s hope, I’ll say that.

Anyways, it was a nice walk in the sunshine. Not too cold or windy, and the walk down to Center Lake Park to check out the renovations to the Center Lake Pavilion was nice. The beach area is getting a facelift, and a much needed one. Excited to see where they go with it in the next year.

My wife and our oldest headed to Indy to pick up our 20-year old from the airport. Seems she had a great weekend of food, museums, a pop-up balloon museum(only in NYC, amirite?), and big city fun. I stayed home and did some writing and re-started the Beatles Get Back documentary again on Disney. It’s such an insightful series, that is if you’re a Beatles nut like I am. Even if you’re not, it’s fascinating just watching a band as big as the Beatles come together to write songs on the spot in front of the cameras and kind of just be normal dudes. You see them struggling to write, noodling, joking around, drinking tea, smoking,…they’re like, well, me and you.

Of course they’re not like me and you, but their personas in front of the camera are left at the doors of the studio and what you see are these four individuals that have done some amazing things together over the last 6 years. Basically changing what it is to be a band and what a band can do, yet are struggling to get on the same page. They were just at the point where all the talent was just too much to be in one band. They all wanted to do their own thing, and Get Back seems to be the last ditch effort to capture the magic of those first couple years. It was like couples counseling, but for the biggest band in the world. Mom and dad still got divorced a year later, but they made two more amazing albums before they went their separate ways.

This brings me to “Now and Then”, the final Beatles song. I’m going to talk about this in another post, but I will say that the first time I heard it I was a little underwhelmed. But after listening a second time, and then watching the Peter Jackson mini doc on the making of it I was honestly moved. The video Jackson shot for the song was what put me over the edge into loving the track.

Anyways, I’ll talk about that more later.

That was the weekend. All in all, a very good one.