walking through the park on a fall day

Down here in western Pennsylvania, we seem to be about 10 days behind the seasonal shifts that I saw in Toronto last week. In West Park, the trees still have their red, yellow, green and brown leaves. (The Ginkgos, above the rail tracks, seem ready to shed their golden leaves.)

Today was a banner day – I got to walk into town and hit the farmers market in Market Square where I bought my favorite organic Rosemary flavored bread. It’s great for toast. And I was able to book my trip to Puglia for next summer using 60,000 air-miles. I’ve never paid less than 90,000 air-miles for any trip. The only glitch is that I have to drive to Toronto, but the itinerary from Pittsburgh had me staying overnight in NYC. (The Pittsburgh option was also 60,000 air-miles.) As the Delta representative said, “The early bird gets the worm.” My strategy has always been to get a free ticket every other year and so far that has worked. (It takes me two years to accumulate enough air-miles for a free ticket. This means that my plane fare to Italy has cost me between $500 and $600 a year.)