Happy Falls,

We have been Falling it up here. Biked to a Russian festival a few weekends ago. This on our way, at a downtown fountain that is right in the middle of what used to be the Erie Canal:

This is where Syracuse made its big bucks 100 years ago, loading up locally dried salt from local brine piped up from ice age generated underground salt reservoirs. It was know as the Salt City, until they found cheaper ways to get salt (probably buying those blue cartons of it for 49 cents at the grocery store), and built railroads.

We also found another Irish festival in a park. But the only picture I have of those trip is of this Irishman and his pretty girl under a tree:

Last weekend we biked amongst the beautiful Fall trees in a local cemetery:

Today we found those same beautiful trees in a local park:

This park is called Green Lakes park because it has a couple of deep lakes with green water. These are unusual ‘meromictic’ lakes, where due to their depth and mineral content, the water below 50 feet does not circulate. So that water at the bottom is undisturbed, thousands of years old. Hmmm, come to think of it, I guess most water is probably thousands of years old. But unlike our tap water, that water has not been pee-ed out by George Washington (I read that somewhere, that we have all drunk at least a molecule of water that has been drunken by people like George and Columbus and all those other old guys).

I’ve been having fun wandering around the campus during the Fall festivals, like Homecoming. Before the home football games they have concerts and activities. The local mascot is a orange ball guy (is the school color). Here he is trying some pullups on the visiting Marines portable pullup bar:

The deal was, if you did pullups, they give you stuff, depending on how many pullups you can do. I couldn’t resist, so gave it a go, earned enough for a tee-shirt, but opted for a lanard for my IBM badge. A marine sponsered IBMer, seemed like a good combo.

For those of you who know Helen and her aversion to crowds, and her lack of interest in sports, you will be surprised to hear I coaxed her into going to a local football game in the campus dome! I have proof:

I expected to last about 1 quarter, but we lasted the whole game (was a fun, close game).

Bruce