Autumn on Austin Street is coming to a close, and my foot is not completely healed yet! Argh, 12 weeks and counting. Nevertheless, I did manage to take a little stroll around Austin Street to check out the scenery on an unseasonably warm day.

Speaking of fall, Rouge has officially fallen off Restaurant “Road.” Anyone know what’s going in that space?

 “La vie sans rose…”

Great colors in the falling leaves of the Bradford-Callery Pear trees.

But don’ t blink! Since the Feds are bailing out the turkeys this year, we’re jumping from Halloween to the Winter Holiday Shopping Season. Do not stop at Thanksgiving, go directly to Christmas!

The snowflakes have been strung across Austin Street…

…and the winter blossoming of temporary closeout stores is starting already.

Fox’s? U-bet!

The only thing that’s not turning white and wintery is the nursing home on 110th Street and 71st Road. Hooray! One less horrid white-brick building! Great face-lift.

Say, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I cracked a bone in my foot a month ago, the first week in August. For those of you who are in the medical profession or who like watching “Mystery Diagnosis,” I have the Jones fracture of the Fifth Metatarsal in my left foot. So, if you’ve ever wanted to know my “secret identity,” I’m the one in the area under 50, hobbling around with a funny shoe and cane that I decorated with stickers and day-glo tape.

But, this is not going to keep me down, sisters and brothers! That’s why I’m volunteering tomorrow, Sunday, at the Astoria Park rest stop New York Century Ride, from 8 AM to 1 PM. Come say hi! I’ll be the one not standing.

A photo I took at Astoria Park at the May 2008 Five Boro Bike tour

Map from the Parks Dept.

Believe me, as a recreational cyclist in our fair city, I’ve noticed how stunningly beautiful the weather has been this August. Wow. Hardly any rain or  humidity and NO heat waves! Oh, the agony of de feet!!

I found this photo on Flickr, and that’s exactly how I feel!

So enjoy our “August in Spetember” weather this week and maybe I’ll see you tomorrow!

“These are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood…”

Summer in Central Queens

Chess in McDonald Park on a Sunday Afternoon

“Future McMansion” (aka, a house for sale) on Jewel Avenue, near 112th Street.

Rainbow over Queens Boulevard (photo courtesy of my OH)

AND…the latest installment in “HOORAY, IT’S NOT A BANK OR CELL-PHONE STORE!”

New health food store coming to 63rd Drive, near the Rego Park Mall parking garage and Dress Barn

And a veterinarian’s office is coming to the Windsor, on 71st Road

Hey, did you catch that rain last night? Pretty brutal, huh? Turns out it was more brutal than you thought–here’s a FoHi-centric report from CBS.