Share Four Somethings: September 2021

This Rambler Marlin, which Randy and I spotted at an antique car show last month, is way cooler than the boxy Rambler Americans my dad drove throughout my childhood. (See Something Treasured below.)

It finally feels like fall in Kansas.

I don’t care about pumpkin spice and orange leaves, but I’m happily wearing my favorite long leggings with cozy cardigans every chance I get. Even better, the chill in the air gives me about 40 extra springs in my step when I’m out on an early morning run.

Scott Fitzgerald said it best in The Great Gatsby: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

To celebrate this new beginning, I’m joining with Heather Gerwing and other bloggers to share four somethings from the past month, starting with …

Something Loved

When I went to see my aunt in Wisconsin a few months ago, I loved sitting at her dining table and watching the hummingbirds flock to the feeder right outside the window. I was a little jealous, though, because I’ve never been able to attract the little birds to my yard like that.

Well, I’m jealous no longer. Although it didn’t happen until September (when decreasing daylight hours guide hummingbirds south), the feeder on the trellis near my back fence was quite the hot spot for a few weeks.

I wish I had a photo of my own to share, but every time I went out to get a picture, they flew away. Even so, I spent many moments staring out various windows, watching the hummingbirds move—in unison—from one drinking hole in the feeder to the next, as if they were participating in some beautifully choreographed aviary dance.

Daughter Molly says Randy and I are old because we’ve reached the stage of life where backyard bird watching is fun. Maybe she’s right. But I prefer to think of it more as a matter of taking the time to notice something special going on right under our nose.

Something Read (or Heard)

I love it when a book exceeds my expectations in surprising ways. I figured How to Be Human: An Autistic Man’s Guide to Life by Jory Fleming would help me understand one person’s experience with autism—a topic about which I knew very little—but I had no idea it would help me understand myself and a few of my loved ones better too.

Fleming, who wrote the book with collaborator Lyric Winik, is a Rhodes Scholar who has overcome significant challenges—physical and otherwise—on his journey to adulthood. As Winik describes him in the first chapter, he is “blunt and honest. But nuanced too. He holds strong views, but they are tempered by logic, rather than emotion.”

The amount of self-awareness he possesses is remarkable, as is Fleming’s determination to communicate and relate as well as he can in a world of mostly “neurotypical” people. How to Be Human is not a Christian book, per se, but Fleming himself is a believer, and his explanation of how his “100 percent logical” faith works resonated strongly with me.

As I read his insights and noticed the way he expressed them, I often found myself thinking things like, That sounds exactly like something my dad would say, or Yes, that makes perfect sense to me.

Here’s just one example, about famous people:

“I am confused as to why people follow celebrity figures and why their words become more powerful simply because of who they are and the fact that they are famous,” Flaming writes. “Why do people assume that being famous equates to having good character, more intelligence, or automatically being deserving of more respect? Because when you give more weight to what someone who is famous says, this also means that another person’s words automatically carry less weight and have less power, even if they are the exact same words.

“So I find people’s reactions a little bit odd because I’m like, Why would you think that about this person that you don’t know?”

Something Treasured

Randy is a big fan of the Motor Trend network, which consists mostly of shows about autobody shops that restore, repair and reimagine vehicles of all makes and models. Personally, I’d rather watch HTGV or the Magnolia Network, but Randy gamely takes in plenty of this content with me, so I’ve enjoyed endured a bit of Motor Trend with him as well.

Viewing differences aside, we’ve both gotten into Sticker Shock, which is sort of like Antiques Roadshow for automobiles. The vehicles people bring in for appraisal on this show are mostly older and often have deeply personal stories attached to them.

Having recently watched an entire season, I was more enthusiastic than usual when it was time for the annual antique car show in the small town where Randy works. We’d been once before, but taking in a car show with two teenage daughters in tow doesn’t make for much leisurely browsing.

This time, it was just Randy and me. We ambled around the park, checking show registration labels on the cars to see if Randy had guessed the year and model correctly. (Quite often, he had, or at least come close.)

At events like this, I’m always drawn to cars my dad loved, like Studebakers and Ramblers. I certainly didn’t appreciate those boxy Ramblers when he insisted on driving them in the 1980s when I was a teenager, but now when I see one, I have to stop myself from taking a picture to show him later.

Meantime, Randy kept an eye out for Falcons like the one he had in high school. Not surprisingly—at least to people who know anything about old cars—these were much more plentiful at the show than my dad’s beloved Ramblers.

It was hot and dusty that day, but we still had a good time—just the two of us. Which makes me look forward to that rapidly approaching empty nest just a little bit more.

Something Ahead

I haven’t spent as much time as usual in my flowerbeds this summer. It’s been alternately too hot, too dry or too buggy, or I just didn’t have the energy for it. Now, however, I’m looking forward to getting my garden areas cleaned up for winter. There are perennials to divide and move around, mulch to spread, flower pots to clean and store.

First, though, I need to come up with a plan for where to put everything. Most of the plants I’m moving are being relocated to spots with existing plants that will also need to be moved somewhere else. It’s like a giant garden puzzle, and once I get started, it’s hard to stop.

Also on the agenda for October is another round of the Whole30 for me and Randy, along with a new goal to work on a book project every day of the month. I did something similar last year and it went well, so I’m hoping for more of the same.

A Bonus Something

Rather than include “Come What May” by We Are Messengers in Something Loved or Heard, I’m just adding it here at the end as a little bonus. I do love it, though, and I hope you do too.

• • •

Now it’s your turn. Please share in the comments if you’ve read any good books lately, enjoy watching wildlife in your backyard, or feel nostalgic at the sight of a particular old automobile. If none of these apply, chime in with your own set of something loved, read, treasured or ahead.

And of course, happy fall!

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with Share Four Somethings, #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Recharge Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee, #HeartEncouragement and Grace & Truth