Halloween Hijinx

Someone tp'd and saran wrapped my neighbor's car last night. I was able to get pics of it before they saw it. Harmless enough. No eggs, tomoatoes, corn or soap.

I had 2 trick-or-treaters. TWO! It is so sad. I was the only one on my entire street with my porch light on. Now, who is going to eat all this candy? I wonder. I can recall in my youth, me and my siblings would walk to another town after we had exhausted our own town. It was a pretty big event. When I went to take my daughter and her friends to a dance there were plenty of little monsters out in the streets of the town. I guess I am just located in a very, very sedate part of the area. Think retired people.

So be it. I proably have it good. About 12 years ago I was talking with a co-worker. He told me he got 400 trick-or-treaters. I couldn't imagine. He said that he gave out little packets of Smuckers jelly. The little packets that you see in restaurants. He lived close to the factory. I think he said he got them for 1 cent each. I can live with the 2 visitors I got.

A Lone Walk down Memory Lane

I took a trip down memory lane
It seems so long ago
That you and I would walk that path
With feelings that would flow

Flow and caress as the wind
That rustles through the leaves
Now the trees are shedding
Tears like me, they grieve

How many walked this lone road
That stretched out before me
What will I find on my journey
What shadows lay beneath the tree

Will I see old friends or new
Will their faces be peaceful or kind
The branches in their golden hue
Pull at my anxious mind

Send me forth to walk alone
Leaving my memories to erode
Around the bend I cannot see
What waits for me down the road

Deep in Humility

I just feel awful. Here I am posting about trees and frivolous stuff. I just read someone's blog about how their life is falling apart. I want to send words of encouragement, but who am I that they would listen to me? I am a stranger to them. They pour their heart out in their blog and I just want to reach out. I want to tell them that everything will be okay. But, will it?

I will finish my blogging, and go on about my life. I will clean the house, fix lunch, then dinner. Hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, hopefully take some good pictures. Hug my daughter and niece, pet my dog and cats. Talk to my bird. How does one cope with losing their home? Not being able to pay their bills? What would happen if I became too sick to work? I have many brothers and sisters, I am sure would help out. But, what if I didn't?

I am so thankful for this General Wellness tape that I am listening to. It has eased all of my pain at work. I am in such a beautiful state of mind, now. I understand that this is not for everyone. Each one of us has to find our way of erasing the bad stress. Remember the movie "What's Love Got to Do With It?" about Tina Turner's life? She chanted Nam-Myoho and regained control of her life.

But, I can't forget those that are lost. The souls out there crying out for help. It is haunting me. I want to post a comment and tell them about my CD. I want to reach out and say "I understand." I sit here humble. I am sorry that they are suffering. I can wish them well. I can send them warm thoughts and prayers. I hope that they find comfort soon.

Stand Apart

Don't fall in with the crowd
Keep your distance
Your colors sing out loud
Showing off your radiance.

I must really like trees. I guess that is what is all around me here in rural Ohio. Lakes and trees. That must be why I prefer a mountain lake vacation instead of the beach. I am a landlubber. Whoops, maybe not. I just took the quiz "Are you a Pirate or a Landlubber?" and I am a Jack Sparrow. quizzilla.com

Today is rain. Rain, rain, rain. My daughters school is having its rivalry game tonight. Number 100. The crowds are supposed to be phenomenal. Both schools sold out in 15 minutes. Streets are closed. I went to work at 7:30 a.m. this morning and cars were already parked along the sides of the football field. I don't have any idea where the people were, but a lot of cars are there. Blankets all over the park behind the field. Wet blankets, but there, marking out territory.

They always have their rivalry game the week of Halloween. My daughter did not get her act together for the party, so it's a wash. She wanted me to invite all of my family. I didn't feel like going to that much work. She said she wanted a big party. It was her choice. She said "forget it." Heck, I usually have 3 or 4 of her friends here on the week-end anyway. We will probably have some sort of goings-on.

I don't like apple cider. I can drink maybe two sips of it ice cold, but that is it. It may be because of 7th grade. When I was in 7th grade, my school had an apple-cider drinking contest between 7th and 8th graders. Now, I didn't participate but I was in the lunch room when it happened. The girl that won. She threw up cider all over the place. Projectile vomiting. Educated people and "what the hell were you thinking" choices.

Amaterasu, Apollo, Aten, Mithra, Ra, Re, Shamash

The Sun God/Goddesses. Beautiful sun cascading its rays through the leaves.

I am the autumnal sun,
With autumn gales my race is run;
When will the hazel put forth its flowers,
Or the grape ripen under my bowers?
When will the harvest or the hunter's moon
Turn my midnight into mid-noon?
I am all sere and yellow,
And to my core mellow.
The mast is dropping within my woods,
The winter is lurking within my moods,
And the rustling of the withered leaf
Is the constant music of my grief....
....Henry David Thoreau

This is Snickers

This is my sister's cat, Snickers. She looks as if she is asking the picture taker (my daughter) if she has any treats for her. We are a family of cat lovers. All pets, actually. When I lived with my brother, he used to tease and say he loved cats, DEAD ONES. But once, I saw him with a potato chip in his mouth bending down and sharing it with my pet cat.

He is a hunter. He has always had guns, always hunted and fished. Growing up, I tasted squirrel, rabbit, deer and I think groundhog. I am not real sure about that last one, I will have to ask him. I say tasted, because that was about all I did. I never did eat any of his fish. I didn't like fish until I was much older. When I could afford to go to a restaurant that fixed it properly. Give me that orange roughy!

I raked leaves this evening until I thought my back was going to break. My daughter and her boyfriend did a lot of the work yesterday, and I finished up today. I looked up and down my street. My trees are the first to be bare, I guess. I think I have about 10 leaves left on both trees in my front yard. My neighbors trees are still full of leaves. Our city will sweep them up eventually if we rake them out onto the curb. I will crush any young whipper snapper driver who drives his or her car through the pile. Yeah, like I could ever catch them.

I caught the tail end of one of my favorite movies today. Originally known as "Eggs, Beans and Chippendales". The movie inspires me. You have these guys who are doubting themselves. They are at their lowest and they just get out there and strip naked. They are scared, but they do it. The humor just cracks me up. The more times I watch it, the more I get out of it. Sometimes the British language moves too fast and I can't catch what they say. After a few viewings, it makes more sense to me.

I watched a documentary on the movie a while back. It kind of ruined it for me, but not a lot. The main character, the one who rounds up this band of unemployed desperados, seems to be (in real life) a real jerk. Definitely looking out for number one. To the point of where he crushes other people. Have you ever heard the saying about a mean cop "He would write his own Mother a ticket" ? Well, they said "This guy would charge his own Mum to see the show." That is how money-hungry he was, I guess.

Didn't get the chance to snap any pictures today, but I will take the time and back them up onto my external hard drive this evening. I don't ever want to lose them again. I realized last night that I lost the "lake jam" pictures also. My friends sent them back to me in email. My nephew laughed when I sent family and friends my pictures of the last couple of days. He said, "So, is this your way of backing up your pictures? Send them out to everyone?" And, he laughed. It works. Talk about your off-site backups.

The beautiful blue sky made a remarkable backdrop for the golden leaves of this deciduous tree. This is one from yesterday's drive taking a side road home. I have a lot more I took this afternoon at a park near my town.

So, I stop at parks that I drive past. When I have a few extra minutes. I will post some of today's pictures later in the week. It was a beautiful day. I have been fighting a cold of sorts. I awoke with a fever blister on my lower lip. I haven't had one of those in years. They are quite painful. I use blistex.

My daughter is arguing with her boyfriend this evening. (Sigh). I found a pamphlet that I bought her a few weeks ago, titled "Is this Love? How to Tell if Your Relationship is Good for You". Some of the questions are obviously for adults because they ask about financial matters, but it was enough to get her thinking. Then she gets depressed. Like she is wasting her time. I've seen parents bad-mouth their children's friends and this usually gets them no where. I want to educate my daughter, not make her judgmental.

The pamphlet discusses issues such as respect, trust, honesty, fairness, equality, and good communication. At 13, I am not sure how high they can score on this questionnaire. She answered poorly to the "respect" section. I chalk that up to his immaturity. But, then again, I've known a lot of adult people who wouldn't score very well on the questions. I see a lot of sad relationships.

Along a side road

I didn't make it to the pumpkin patch today, I took a side road instead. I came across an Amish stand selling pumpkins, dried flowers and various gourds and vegetables. The lady was kind and said she was just about to setup the "honor" stand. When I got up to the counter, I saw a sign that said pay by the honor system. I had no idea there was such a thing any more. Well, there it is, alive and well in Holmes county, Ohio.

Along a side road, I found a place to pull off the road and captured some colorful autumn changes. One was the above pond. The fish swam away as soon as I walked up to the pond, but eventually they came back. There was one big fella, he looked at me for a long time. I took a few pictures, but the water was murky and they didn't turn out very well.

A nice contrast was the crisp golden yellow tree leaves against the clear blue sky. I will post one of those later in the week. I think another nice contrast is the pumpkin orange against the mossy green grass.

It should be interesting to see what people blog about after the election. Of course they will talk about who is not doing their job or who could have done a better job, I suppose. But, some blogs I read are infested with politics. As if there is nothing else to talk about. I got a kick out of one blogger who said "check the facts!" go to such and such web page. That is checking the facts? I could post anything I want about anybody on a web page. And this blogger was a ripe old age of 23.

I have a young relative who is full of "the world is in such a mess because of global warming". They get this from their high school teacher. We have an unusually warm day, yep - global warming. If global warming is indeed a fact, I am sure we are still allowed to have an extraordinary warm day now and again. I don't think the Pioneers blamed Indian summer on global warming.

Cloudy Saturday

I was able to retake some fall pictures. The sun wasn't shining, so the colors aren't as vibrant. I have a dam near me and it was difficult to get pics that didn't have the cement or wires in view. I just wanted nature.

I was able to get a good bit of yard work done this week-end. I even scooped leaves while it was raining. I really like the smell of wet leaves when they are fresh. Not after they have sat in a pile or in a bag for a few days. They especially smell bad once they get wet and then rot in the hot sun.

It may be past the color stage to go back to the lake I was at a few weeks ago. I will aim for pumpkin patches. I plan to go to one tomorrow to prepare for the party on Saturday night. My daughter is having a few friends over. They are too old to trick-or-treat. I plan to have them paint pumpkin faces. Safer than carving them. Can you imagine 10 thirteen-year-olds with knives? Not the way I want to spend my Saturday night. No siree.

October is closing fast. November was never one of my favorite months. I like September and October. I don't like August (too hot) and I don't care for November, December, January, February, or March. I can take or leave April. But, I do like May. I can take or leave June. July is too hot, also. I guess that makes September and October my favorite months. I guess you could say I like the fall (autumn).

I just found a community poll where 45% of the poll liked fall the best, 25% liked spring, 20% summer and 10% winter. I would imagine that if you like winter sports like skiing, then winter would probably be your favorite. Same with water sports or sunbathing. Maybe hiking and boating and fishing are the fall sports. Hayrides, harvesting, and you can't forget football.

I think I will make round sugar cookies and ice them with orange icing. I put two m&m's on for eyes and about 5 for a smiling mouth. I will look for the mini m&m's. I haven't made pumpkin cookies in years. I used to make them a lot. My "significant other" liked them. We were living in Virginia, and I can recall looking all over the grocery store for a can of pumpkin.

If you are from the South or have ever lived there, you know that Sweet Potato Pie is the favorite over Pumpkin Pie. It was funny. I asked a stock boy where the canned pumpkin was, and he couldn't find any. He said why don't you just make a sweet potato pie. I said I was making pumpkin cookies and I had never heard of sweet potato cookies. By the way, I don't like the sweet potato pie. I am pumpkin all the way.

I like to ice them with cream cheese icing. Sometimes I put raisins in them. I will make sure I take plenty of pictures. I found some good treat ideas here. I really like the buckeyes dipped in white chocolate to look like eyeballs. Ewww.

EBCDIC, anyone?

This photo brings back so many memories. The year was about 1989 - 1990. I was the PC Specialist in a Unix/Linc/A-Series environment. The reason I left this job was because they refused to network their pc's together. I was one person. I had 70 Windows machines and 12 Macintosh. I think it was Classic II's back then. When macs were all one piece (monitor and hard drive combined). Each end user had their own printer. Okidata 393 Plus. Most users had their own laser jet printer. I even connected some Applewriters to the Windows machines. Interesting.

Conversion of EBCDIC to ASCII hell. This is where I cut my teeth on serial ports. Most end users today don't even know what the com port is used for. There was a time when I wouldn't have ordered a PC, unless it had two com ports. They don't know how good they have it with USB.

9600, 8 none 1 - I know it as well as I know my abc's.

The picture shows our glass enclosed area. We had a raised floor. We had halon setup for fire control. I don't mind telling you that shit scared the hell out of me. I worked the afternoon shift back then and I worked mostly by myself. I was petrified that system was going to go off. Don't get me started on thunderstorms and blackouts. This department had no windows. We were in the basement.

I was in charge of the mainframe backups. This left me time to work my magic on the pc's. And the Unisys 6000. After I got real good with the pc's they moved me to dayshift so I could be available to the end users. What a delight that was! Yeah, right! Most of us PC people are anti-social, nocturnal, introverts. Leave us alone! Ah, glory days for sure.

One from the Myrtle Beach archives.

Here is one from last year. Myrtle Beach in the very early a.m. Before the sunrise. There were quite a few people out and about wanting to catch pictures of the sunrise. What I didn't know was, I was on a section of the beach that curves down and actually faces the south. You had to walk and walk and walk to get the East shore. So, I just took pics of what I could without walking for miles.

I bought an electric drill and fixed my own back door today. I actually bought the drill to hang curtains. My nephew said to me, "I can't believe you don't have an electric drill." I never needed one. Now that I am getting older, I don't have the torque in my wrists like I used to. I hung one set of curtains a week ago and I could not get the screw into the wood work. Maybe this house is more solid than all the others I have lived in. I don't know. Maybe all the keyboarding has weakened my wrists. I don't know.

I had called the handy man that was here a month ago (he put the bottom piece on the door). It was catching on the outside of the door and wouldn't close properly. It didn't do it until a week after he finished. (The story of my life. Don't even get me started on plumbers). He never called back.

I think that unless you have a job for them that is over $200, they don't want to bother with you. I guess I can see their point. So, I better bite the bullet and just dive in. I was willing to pay someone to do the small jobs, but I have smelled the coffee, so to speak.

Anyway, with two teenagers in the house, the cats are getting out. I think one has brought fleas back with her. Damn! I was just thinking this is the first year I have not had fleas on my cats. Double damn.

Soon the Snow

After Halloween comes Thanksgiving. After that comes the snow. Mowing grass to raking leaves to shoveling snow. Arrrgggh!

Sometimes I wonder if I am making any progress at all with my daughter. She seems to be so far away and distant to me at times. I am looking into more education for myself. I don't want to get caught off guard when she doesn't need me anymore.

It was a misty, drizzly day in my part of Ohio today. I started my early morning drive thinking "I should have brought my camera". But the sun never did come out. I'll put it in my car, though just in case.

I have to make up for the lost lake pictures. Still boo hoo-ing over that. And, my Fall Festival pictures. Of all the campers decorated for Halloween. I lost them too. Maybe the lady who mentioned that I shouldn't take pics of the crafts at the festival put a curse on my pictures. Poof - they're gone. Okay, okay. Just having fun.

Made nachos tonight. The kids love them. I will only purchase the hamburger that is 96% lean. I read an article once where it said "Either pay for it now or pay for it in medical bills when you are in your sixties." That made sense to me. I drain the fat off. Sometimes it cooks up so clean, there is nothing to drain off. I add a taco mix in. I usually add nacho cheese on the top, but tonight I didn't have any - so I put cheez whiz on the top. I place round nacho chips around the oven-safe dish. The kids loved the cheez whiz - much better they said. Okay.

In little decorative bowls, I place sour cream, black olives, salsa and shredded cheddar cheese. For me, I shred romaine lettuce. A friend told me that she heard in a seminar that iceberg lettuce carries toxins in it that can trigger migraines. Because of the big veins in a head of iceberg lettuce, it sucks up all the toxins out of the ground. I researched that on the Internet, but didn't find anything.

American Saddlebred

If my memory serves me correctly, this is a statue of the American Saddlebred. My daughter and I went here a couple of times. I would recommend it for anyone who has children who love horses.

I like museums of Art and Natural History. I like the theater. I want to see this musical. There is a group of people I work with at the schools that invited me to go this spring. I better jump on the band wagon.

I have seen Phantom of the Opera, Evita, and Cats on a large scale. I would like to see Beauty and the Beast, A Chorus Line, Mamma Mia, The Nutcracker, and Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. On a smaller scale, I have seen The Sound of Music, The Cabaret, Beauty and the Beast, Hello Dolly, and Life on the Twentieth Century. On television I have seen the 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera, Madonna in Evita, Julie Andrews' The Sound of Music, Disney's' Beauty and the Beast, Streisand's Hello Dolly and Michael Douglas in A Chorus Line. They were all fantastic.

Have I missed any? Does anyone recommend anything I missed?

Oy Vay!

This may be the last picture you see of the lake for a while. I lost all 200 of my lake pictures. I only have about 10 saved. They happen to be the ones I sent friends and family and the ones I put in this blog. My friends were gracious enough to send the pics back to me when they found out I wiped mine out.

I wrote on Friday that I ordered some hacker books. I overwrote my mbr on Saturday. I guess I wasn't feeling challenged enough. No, just kidding. I didn't really mean to do it. It is one of those things. I was trying something (stupid, I admit) but nontheless I overwrote it. My backup was one month old (Wince).

Okay, so I can laugh about it now. Usually I can fix things like this myself, but I was having trouble. I had to call Dell. :( What kind of person works week-ends in technical support? Answer: The good ones. The reason why I couldn't recover was because I have two RAID drives instead of one hard drive. Dell had to help me create extra boot files on a floppy disk because of this.

Like I said in my profile: I work with computers and sometimes against them. What a learning experience. Fortunately, I only lost a couple of documents and the pictures. I did have the cute little movies of the neighbor boy. The one who is 6 and said he was one. He was adorable. I'll see if I can get him back and re-take them. His giggle was so infectious.

We are back up and running, now. Much cleaner, I must say. First off was the anti-virus updates and the Windows critical updates. Both of those took like and hour. I have put the hacker books away. You may see them for sale real cheap on ebay or something (wicked grin).

Oy vay.

Pretty colors.

There were plenty of pretty plants and flowers left to photograph while I was at the Lighthouse Restaurant on the lake. I took this one a little bit too close. I just now saw the spider.

Well, I became entwined in Linux traps today. I was trying to get java to run in Mosaic. I finally did it with a link command. It was Friday. It was 4:30 p.m. My brain had run out of steam long ago.

I am reading three O'Reilly Hacks books. Windows Server, Windows XP and Networks. I believe that in order to secure your network properly you have to study how they hackers get in. Once you see how they are working, you know how to defend yourself.

My daughter and one of her friends are in the house singing to Karaoke Revolution. They are hilarious. They can disguise their voices so that they sound like the little critters on Gremlins.
They aren't even trying to score, just making as much noise as they can. Friday night. I have stocked up on soda and snacks. It is cold and rainy outside. We will order pizza later. Cozy.

Sailing, sailing.

Another post from the lake. The sailor took the sail down right after I shot this picture. In fact, I didn't realize it because they were so far away, but I was snapping pictures of them taking the sail down. I used zoom so they didn't see me. My nephew that skis wants to get a sailboat. Not water skis, snow skis. Silly word - skis.

I went to a meeting today at my daughter's school. Her class goes to Washington D.C. this school year. It sounds so exciting. I was thinking about chaperoning. They put a damper on that. No parents allowed. Teachers chaperone. Phooey. I went when I was 10. In 1970.

I used to get the Biography magazine. Actually, I still get it - it is free now. You have to join their club and answer some surveys. But the magazine is pretty awesome. I still like to read books and magazines. I can't stand to read for long periods of time online. The fall issue that I just received is a gold mine for my teenagers. There is Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Mary Kate and Ashley in the issue. I may never get it back from my daughter.

Do you like free software? Check out Tucows.com. Just make sure you scan it for virus and spyware. Most files are zipped, so you will need winzip to un-compress it, etc... One of my old favorites is DaysEase. Google it.

Here Comes the Sun

This is another one of the pictures I took while at the lake yesterday. Just awesome. It reminded me of the song 'Here comes the Sun'. Not a big Beatles fan. This was one of their songs that I liked. I could probably count on one hand how many of them I liked. I apologize, but John Lennon's 'Woman' nauseated me. I realize that JL was on his own when he sang this one, but he was a big influence on their music style. I was much more into PM and GH's style.

Day is Done.

See the long shadows coming from the right side of the photo? Day is drawing near an end. This is where I stole off to after work today. My camera was ready today. What a relaxing atmosphere. I was able to capture some of the hills around the school with the fall leaves turning their brilliant, blazing colors.

I like Peter, Paul and Mary. That is where I got the title for this blog. Their song "Day is Done."

There was one lone sailboat on the lake today. A small fishing boat passed by, but he was quiet. He didn't run his motor very much.

The atmosphere catapulted me from the dreary school to a sea of tranquility. Nothing like walking into a school and having the secretary make the sign of a cross with her fingers at me. Like they do to keep dracula away. She only sees me when their Internet is down (which in this case includes her telephone lines). She is superstitious. She thinks I am going to jinx it. I would be burned at the stake if this were the 17th century.

One of my daughter's friends had her little brother over today. I was recording him with my camera and I asked him how old he was. He hesitated and said "I don't know. One." This boy was much older than one. I thought, "how sad." His sister told me he was six. I didn't ask any more questions. I just took some very cute pictures of him. He giggled a lot. He said I was 'crazy'.

Nature's first green is gold.

That is what I always think of when I see the turning of the leaves. Robert Frost. Sorry, I got tired of the Fall Festival's Halloween pictures. I took over 200 pictures today of the lake near a school I worked at. I finished up at the school and drove to the lake/dam/marina. Wow.

I grabbed this one and posted it. More to come.

Fall Faces

Three pumpkin heads all in a row. Laughing, smiling, having a good time. Watching the people go by. My hair has looked like this on occasion. Although I have never had any missing teeth in the front, my smile has become a bit crooked. I attribute that to extensive dental work on the lower right jaw area. That whole side of my face has drooped. Even my eye. I see it in pictures of myself. I like carrots, but I have never eaten enough of them to turn me orange.

My daughter wants to dress up as a pirate wench this holiday. I think she and her friends got the idea from POTC. This should be interesting. From dracula to a wench.

Of course with the beautiful leaves comes a downside. I just spent an hour raking and sweeping them out of my driveway. I have a leaf blower, but honestly, I can't stand the noise it makes. And, I am not very good at steering the leaves in any one direction. They seem to end up worse than when I started.

Come on-a My House

I'm gonna give you candy. That is Rosemary Clooney's most famous song, I believe. Mother to this fellow, aunt to this character, and Mother-in-Law to this lady.

Maybe she recorded it around Halloween. So many towns and cities are dropping where the kids walk around door to door trick-or-treating and opt for the party. My daughters' elementary school had to call theirs the Fall Festival so that it wouldn't have satanic manifestations. We would donate a bag of candy. I recall my daughters' best friend never donated the entire six years they went to that school. Her Mother never sent in tissues or paper towels when they were on the list for school supplies, either. I wonder what justification she had for this. Maybe it took money away from her manicures and hair processing money.

One of my sisters' was telling me that she went to her dentist and they x-rayed her teeth. The dentist said he needed to send her to a specialist and have him look at tooth #4. He thought it needed a root canal. My sister went to the specialist. The specialist said, No, you need a root canal on tooth #3. And he did just that. My sister was still in pain, so she goes back to the original dentist. He said, No, you still need a root canal on #4. Back to the specialist who sees that tooth #3 is infected. He lances and cleans tooth #3, does a root canal on tooth #4. My sister was left with much pain and a black eye. She feels that this is dental negligence. I gave her some url's in which to read and research what options she may have.

What a horror story. I remember when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I remember the dentist using what felt like a C-clamp to hold my mouth open. Christ, it was torture. I had a bulge on my lower jaw for a week. It looked like I had a wad of chewing tobacco in my jaw.

Another dentist had pulled one of my side molars when I was 12, so there was room on that side of my mouth for that wisdom tooth. I got to keep one of them. So, I still have wisdom. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My daughter and her friends are into hacky sack. They have been playing it all week-end. I hate it when they play in the basement, someone always hits the furnace. I have block windows, so I am not too worried about that. The cats have already broken one of my favorite oriental vases, so I don't worry about the kids breaking anything.

Skateboards must be out this fall. My niece did get a beautiful snowboard. She is ready for the season to begin. My nephew skis. They have a good time. I never was into that sport myself. The most I ever did in the winter was sled ride. Now, I am reduced to shovelling snow. I must look into snow blowers.

Scarecrow on a bench

I finally got started decorating for Halloween. It seems like I don't have near as many decorations as I thought I did. Maybe I will go get more tomorrow. The above picture is not in my yard; it was one from the Fall Festival the past week-end. I will take pictures of my decorations when I am done, and probably at night. I would have loved to have seen the festival after dark, but I was tired.

I caught this movie last week-end. The Rundown. My niece had a crush on Sean William Scott a couple of years ago. Now, my daughter likes him. I found the movie refreshingly hilarious. I usually don't care for the action/fighting (unless it is Jackie Chan or Jet Li). I like humor added to water down the violence. I am not so certain Jet Li has comedy in his movies, but I do know that Chan does. Rundown puts the comedy right out there. I enjoyed it. "I want concrete." I still chuckle.

Beware the bat

Blind as a bat. Like a bat out of Hell. To the Bat mobile! Bats in the belfry. About 10 years ago I lived in a big farm house. At dusk we had bats all over the place. We also had tons of mosquitoes. The bats didn't make a dent in the pest population. Thankfully we didn't have bats in the attic. No bat poop to deal with. They were out in the barns. My landlord's barns.

The dermatologist said that two of my daughters' moles may be growing back. I wonder if the surgeon just didn't get the entire mole. My daughter prefers to have a female dermatologist check her out, so I will make an appointment. I tried to get her in a month ago, but they were booked until November. The saga continues.

I can recall the day that Karen Carpenter died, I was doing yoga.

Karen was the first I ever heard of anorexia nervosa. My daughter has her friends over a lot. I am always trying to feed them. They don't eat much. My daughter was a picky eater ever since she was born, so I am used to her not eating a lot. I watch for any signs of purging or starving herself. So far, it is okay. I can't stick my head in the sand. She drinks enough 2% white milk to float a barge. I should have bought a cow instead of a dog.

Pirate Graveyard

It was a drizzly, foggy day. I couldn't see five feet in front of me. My foot hit something hard, yet slippery. I reached out my hand. My naked palm met cold steel. I froze in horror as the fog began to clear. I was inches away from a wrought iron fence that surrounded a Pirate graveyard. My legs felt as if they were full of sand. I couldn't back up. I stood riveted as the ghastly scene before me began to unveil. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I heard the slow creaking of a rusted hinge. Just then a goblin popped out and shouted "Johnny, you forgot your hamburger!"

Sorry, that last line was from a scary story I heard when I was a young child growing up near a graveyard. One of many. Yes, I grew up one house away from a graveyard. I cut through that graveyard many times coming home, sometimes at night. Nothing scary ever happened to me.

Life is scary enough today with taxes, mortgage payments, psychotic managers, temperamental teenagers, pushy car salesmen, angry teachers and moody parents. Get this. I got up at 5:30 a.m. when my daughter did and I hear this noise. I said "Is that (nieces' name)'s car horn?" Yes, it was. I put my jacket on and went outside. The horn was blaring away. As I trotted down the sidewalk towards the driveway, I was wondering 'How in the heck do I disengage the horn?' I opened the driver side door. There was a stick jammed between her front seat and the horn. I removed the stick and the horn stopped.

What the hell? By that time, my niece was outside, too. She has no idea who would have done this. We chalked it up to a Halloween prank - though a bit early. I cleaned out the garage and her car is now parked inside. In the newspaper there was another incident of a horn blowing, but that was in a town 12 miles away. No mention of a stick jamming the horn. It could have been a coincidence. October is cooler and horns do stick. Very weird. (Twilight zone music)

Okay, are we in the mood, yet? I STILL haven't found my Halloween decorations. Cleaning out the garage did not uncover them. Grrr! Okay, back to the root cellar. Certainly won't find any canned vegetables or fruit in there. Some people call it a root cellar, some a fruit cellar. How about a wine cellar? I like that one. I'll put a bottle of wine in there and call it a wine cellar. No, wait. I have two teenagers. How long do you think that bottle of wine will last?

Ahoy Matey!

And here is a pirate skeleton from the Festival. We were wondering if they held a contest each year. I have been there on a Sunday and have not seen any ribbons or signs stating such. They sure do a wonderful job, though. Another beautiful evening passed and I didn't get mine out.

I did drive my daughter to her boyfriend's new house this evening. He lives 6 miles away now, instead of .2 miles. Out in the country with 9 acres. They plan on getting horses and goats. Cringe. I hope they don't get horses for a while, my daughter has been begging me for one ever since the fair. So far my "How are we going to transport a horse? My little Civic will not pull a horse trailer" is not having any effect on her.

Well, they live pretty far out there. To a 13 year old, it probably seems like Timbuktu. To me it seemed like Timbuktu. Hopefully he can stay in the same school. There is a little controversy about that. I am not exactly sure what it is.

It is supposed to get real chilly tonight in our area. Frost warnings. I didn't do very well with flowers this year, nor did I plant any tomatoes, so I have nothing to cover. I removed the garden hose from the outside faucet and put it in the garage. It is time to mow grass again.

Something happened last week that I think I can just now write about. I did not know this man personally, but I knew people who knew him. He was a school teacher. He was very popular with the students. He gave 110%. He was also the school's theater director. He directed some pretty terrific shows.

He set himself on fire last week and died a few hours later. There are so many questions and so much grief. He had so many people who loved him. He was single and 40 and lived with his Mother and Father. He was their provider. They lived on a farm. I won't go into detail about all the rumors or stories that are flying around, because the end result is still the same. A tragedy.

Scarecrow

I didn't see this fellow until I zoomed in on some of the pictures I took Saturday at the festival. He looked as if he was enjoying himself watching all of the people go by.

We noticed the craft makers putting a lot of periwinkle in with the orange and rust colored arrangements this year. My daughter was looking for her yearly purchase of the wooden animals on strings, they didn't have that display this year. She was disappointed. I wasn't. Eventually the dog would chew it up as she did with last years' purchase.

It astounds me that some people have no pride. They come right out and ask you for money. They have no intention of paying it back. It is always this excuse or that excuse. If you show them any generosity at all, they try to sponge off of you. They make no effort to hide the fact that they plan to use the money unwisely, or give it to their good for nothing children.

Now, there was a time when I was younger that I needed a loan from a family member. But, I felt awful about it. I was embarrassed and I thought I was going to die. It took me a while, but I paid it back.

I finally grew up when I moved to Virginia and had to pick up the slack from my then no-good boyfriend. I learned a lot about money management there. No family to fall back on there. I was always good at working, I never had a problem finding a job. But, my boyfriend was not the best character. His money was gone in hours - I mean "hours". He would come home the day after payday - broke. Not at first he didn't. It grew into that. I would pay the bills, rent etc., food, his cigarettes, and he would promise to straighten up. I ended it and moved on.

When am I going to find my Halloween decorations? I looked in the garage, and in the root cellar. I got sidetracked. Hopefully tomorrow? Yes, someone does have a Santa sleigh and reindeer up already. They were mowing the grass around it today. I want to run it over with my car. It just doesn't seem right. All the rest of us are putting Halloween up and they have a Christmas display. Why, it's just un-American! Maybe they work in retail. :)

Fall Festival.

What a wonderful time my sister and I had on Saturday with the Fall Festival. On Sundays it is just too crowded with the antique car show. I walked so much I thought my feet would fall off. We stayed there 6 hours. I took plenty of pictures that should pretty much fill up all of October until Halloween. The campers did such a great job decorating their campers this year! And, don't tell anyone, but there was one for sale. Oh, how tempting it would be.

With the one shown above, this was just one corner of their campsite. There were some people sitting on their porch and when they saw me taking pictures, they turned the smoke on. It was great. What sports they were. It did rain on us from time to time, and became quite windy, but we prevailed. I know that Sunday was the pleasanter day to go, but I knew what crowds that would draw.

I saw so many nice crafts and centerpieces, I just can't tell you. I was risky and snapped away a few pics of the crafts, until one lady asked me to stop. They don't like anyone taking pictures of their artwork. I kind of knew that when I was taking them. Out of respect for them, I will not print any here. Just the campers and the fun.

And the food. Wow. It is usually the same stands every year in the same places, so I know what I have tried before. I went for the "chicken delight" this year. It was so, so yummy. Grilled pieces of exquisite white chicken meat with onions, peppers on a gyro with ranch dressing. It was delightful. My sister said it just tasted so good to me because I was so hungry. Could be. My Mom always said "Anything's good when you're hungry." I think she just had trouble taking a compliment when I would say "Mom, this is good!"

I bought a welcome sign for my front door. I like changing them through-out the seasons. I have one that I just love that I cannot find. My good friend gave it to me when I first bought the house. I can't find it and it is driving me nuts. (The friend that was up over the Labor day holiday). I will post pictures of my new welcome sign later in October.

And I need to begin my own decorating for Halloween. Kick myself in the butt, get myself going. It is going to be cold this week. I got the furnace checked out for the season and I turned it on this morning. It got down to 67 degrees in the house. Brrr! I had company and I felt bad. It warmed up quickly. I have the thermostat set to 69 degrees in case it gets chilly tonight. Stay warm.

Kitty in a basket

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this kitty in a basket. This was my Mom's kitten right before she passed away. This is one of the favorite places the kitty liked to sleep. It would curl up the best that it could in this tiny basket on my Mom's dining room table and just sleep there. It sure doesn't look very comfortable, but for a cat - maybe so.

Not to worry. We quit eating at the dining room table years ago. My Mom just got too old to cook and she preferred to stay in the 1950 time zone as far as kitchen gadgets go, so we always had family dinners elsewhere. My Mom ate in the kitchen.

My three cats are doing well. I have one who has a problem with hair balls. Something I am not at all used to. Every cat I ever had in my life never had a problem with hair balls. I am trying the petroleum jelly on a treat every day. He eats it. He doesn't care for the petroleum jelly, but he wants the treat pretty bad. I don't see the other cats having a problem hacking.

I have had cats and dogs all my life. My favorite dog was a little, gray terrier that we found running as a stray with her pup. My brother-in-law found them when he was working in a strip mining area. (Coal mining). I took the the female mother dog right away, someone else took the little black pup. It was years later that I found out my little shadow was a Dandie Dinmont Terrier breed. If only I had the Internet 25 years ago. I moved to Texas and my Mom kept her. I moved to Virginia years later and my sister kept her. It was while I was in Virginia that my little dog died. I have been looking for her replacement ever since. It has been 17 years now.

I will post one of her pictures when I come across them in the family albums. I am still scanning them into the computer as I have time. We had many dogs while I was growing up. Mostly hunting dogs such as beagles. One was a Rottweiler, although we didn't know it at the time. He was a found puppy on a paper route. He was probably registered or a purebred, but the owners never came forward. He grew huge - had docked tail, so we called him Stubby. We had him for over 14 years.

Our two German Shepherds were Frosty and Nicky. Two polar opposites. Frosty was black and skinny and mean - like a wild wolf. Nicky was tan, thick and gentle as a lamb. A big baby. Our beagles were Clem (short for Clem Kadiddlehopper - Red Skelton's character), Grandpa, Barksalot (guess how he got that name), Pepi, Starbuck, and Apollo. My brother was into Battlestar Gallactica at the time, I guess. I never watched the show. For all you sci-fi fans out there, there is a new series starting in January 2005.

Now that I am older, I only get animals that I can take care of properly. That means I only take on as many as I can reasonably afford to take to the vet's office and do right by. Back then we took in all the strays. With that many kids in the house, my Mom was very tolerant of all the pets that we would bring home. No purebreds for us, it was the neighborhood mutts.