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Travel is often a delight because you just never know what you’ll discover along the way. That was certainly the case on a recent weekend getaway where my husband and I enjoyed the colorful fall scenery in a sleepy little town in southern Minnesota which is propped up along the wonderfully scenic Root River Bike Trail. Snugly located, just so, beneath a Christmas-inspiring evergreen tree between two old storefronts in downtown Lanesboro you’ll find the Spud Boy’s Diner. The owner, crazy in love with both the diner and his wife, will regale you with the history and romance of his acquaintanceship with the diner-on-wheels restaurant business – and he’ll sport a broad smile on his face in the telling!

A trip to Lanesboro AND a breakfast stop at the diner (open at 6:00 AM): Both are highly recommended. The owners were fun to talk to, the food was great, the prices were very reasonable, and the gleaming woodwork alone – on both the walls and the ceiling – is worth the visit. You won’t stumble across one of these gems very often. Truly, a fine specimen of Americana.

Oh. And check out the car the owners drive as well. She’s a beaut!

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Earlier this month our central Iowa metro community was rocked – and is still reeling – over the senseless killings of two police officers, both of whom were ambushed while sitting in their patrol cars one evening. Blue ribbons of solidarity have cropped up everywhere as people struggle with their grief, wishing to convey both their own sense of loss as well as their support for the families of these two public servants.

We awoke one morning to find this shimmery blue ribbon tied around the oak tree in our front yard and saw that the neighbors’ trees, stop signs and light poles on our street were similarly adorned.

I don’t know who performed this bit of communal magic but their token of good will has not gone unnoticed – or unappreciated.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Magic

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Some things change a person. My world now, the one I currently wish to inhabit, has closed in a few degrees. An aperture akin to f/22, a tighter opening, a more focused vision on those things in my life that have greater meaning than the shallow, arbitrary, fleeting approval subject to the whims of, well, whatever and whoever is trending at the moment.

Doing, seeing, observing, walking, dancing, grooving, creating, laughing, reading, cooking, baking, savoring, contemplating.

Being.

These are the delights with which I wish to fill the hours of my days, not the eyestrain of a blinking, blinding computer screen.

Inspiration rather than exasperation. Exhilaration vs. mere existence. Living vs. dying.