Missing autumn

I feel like I've been failing at autumn lately. Usually it is my favorite season where I will use any excuse to get out of the city to go hiking or apple picking or just see some foilage. And yet here it is nearly halfway through October. Apple season is effectively over up here (well at least as far as the picking them is concerned), I haven't left the five boroughs since early September, and the only leaves I see with any regularity are the ones outside my living room window (and that is not a particularly showy tree). Worse still, I just let a perfectly good three-day weekend go by without planning anything more complicated than brunch with friends.

This is not to say that I haven't been busy. But I haven't broken my normal routine to do anything especially fall-like. And, as so often happens, the month seems to be filling up quickly. Something about fall always seems so fleeting even as it first begins. The crispness in the air turns to cold and sweater weather all too quickly devolves into coats and scarves. Of course winter has it's own accompanying activities, but I just don't think I'm ready for it yet. I guess I'll just have to accept that winter will come, leaves will fall, and time will march forward even if I'm not actually taking the time to watch the leaves change.

So this post is turning out to be mostly why I haven't had anything to post about lately. Or in other words, this post is turning out to be pretty lame. The one interesting thing I did this past Columbus Day weekend was go to a Russian bath in Brooklyn. Not especially fall-like, but also not something I do every day. It was a cold, cloudy day so it was actually a lovely time to get indoors soaking in hot tubs and steam rooms. Most people there spoke Russian and while the place was definitely pretty low on the frills, it was worth the Groupon price we all paid. My one quibble would be to not advertise "access to the roof deck" as one of the purchase perks if it turns out the roof deck is just the roof of the building with some astroturf, plastic lawn chairs, and some very full ash trays. My friends and I enjoyed a few hours of relaxation, drank tea, and ate sour cherry dumplings with sour cream. All in all, not a bad way to spend a day off from work.