Autumn officially arrives on Thursday at 8:03 CDT. The sun will rise at 6:40 AM and set twelve hours and nine minutes later at 6:49 PM. We experienced our last 7 PM sunset this past Thursday and its bittersweet.

I am enjoying the morning outside at my summer office. The day began cloudy, but the clouds have been replaced by a clear blue sky with a light breeze that gently tickles the wind chime the tree branches above me.

The forecast for the week begins with high temperatures in the low 80s and finishes the month with temperatures in the low 70s. It will warm enough by day, but cooler overnight lows dipping ten degrees to the mid 50s by the end of the month.

Fall Hiking
Last fall, I accepted the forest preserve’s challenge to Take a Hike in collaboration with Edwards-Elmhurst Health. Each week I get a reminder email on Thursday get out and move. I enjoyed last year’s challenge, but I have gotten out and hiked this season.

Yesterday, Fern and I went for a short hike at a forest preserve where I have never hiked before. It’s across the road from our son’s house and I pass it every time I visit. I have been telling myself I should plan a hike, so I did.

West DuPage Forest Preserve is one of the forest preserves oldest preserves. It was acquired in the mid 1920s and parcels have been added over time. The Western Branch of the DuPage River runs along the northern edge of the preserve before bending south and splitting the preserve in half. The path Fern and I took climbed a hill then descended to the riverbank below.

I discovered after the hike that the area is a designated birding area by the Audubon Society. I wasn’t looking for birds on this hike, but the fall migration has begun, and I have noticed a drop in the need to refill the feeders in the backyard as I often as I was earlier this summer.

down by the West Branch of the DuPage River

at the top of Elsen’s Hill

Fern and I enjoyed our hike and even saw a couple of deer on the path in front of us before they darted back into the forest. I noticed the warning that the preserve is a coyote habitat, but we didn’t see one, however, we did smell a skunk.

wildflowers were blooming

and more wildflowers

NEW Technology and the ZPD
I have been a lifelong PC user until last week when I decided to purchase a Mac. Both my children were shocked when I announced I was done with Microsoft Windows. Both have Macs and have had them since the junior years in high school.

I went to the Apple store, just to look and ended up making the purchase.

I’ve been a PC computer user over half of my life, but I find myself in the uncomfortable zone of learning a new and different way of doing things. I am reminded and encouraged by the memory that my father began using a PC in 1987 at the age of 54. Like him, I am non-native to computers but consider myself competent. Last Sunday morning’s post was completed using the old laptop and the new Mac until I figured out what I was doing and got some tech help from my daughter at college. I was a little frustrated, but learning. I was weaving in and out of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

I haven’t used the old laptop sense, but I have some files I need to transfer before the transition is complete. I find myself using Windows keyboard short cuts that don’t work on an Apple. This post was composed and formatted entirely on the Mac.

This week I am still experiencing the ZPD but I feel a bit more comfortable and each day I gain a little more confidence, so much so I am going to wrap this up before it becomes Monday.

I know it’s going to be an amazing day. In some ways it already is, but I have a list of to dos that won’t get done unless I press publish. So, I’d better jump in, jump out, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, learning every day, sometimes by force.

What have you learned recently that pushed your ZPD?  

SIDE NOTE: I wasn’t able to finish the post and press PUBLISH until Monday morning. A little ZPD at work.