Def-y's Categorizing: September 2005 Archives

Sept. 22, 2005, 6:23 PM EDT was the date of the Fall Equinox. As of 6:23, we were officially into fall. But that date was warm and sunny and still felt like summer. As a matter of fact, I hadn't seen ANY sign of fall as of the 22nd.

Today, fall came. When I got up this morning, it was in the forties. The house was unusually chilly because the furnace was not running. By two this afternoon we had barely managed to creep into the sixties. Definitely FALL weather.

As I dressed, I knew it was fall because the age old question came to mind. "What do I wear?" I ended up choosing a white turtleneck and jeans, and my sandals. When I was ready to go out, I added a red sweater jacket. I was fine. Since I was inside most of the morning my feet were warm, but the jacket was definitely overkill in the grocery store.

Fall is here. The geese are gathering, and trying out different leaders as they line up in wedges. I can imagine mom and pop goose honking encouragement to the juniors who will make their first migration south. I can (finally!) feel the difference in the air. The angle of the sun has changed, and the days are much shorter. Elegante Mother saw a chickadee the other day, and we should see the juncos and nuthatches soon.

I bought my first pumpkin, and the second set of mums. I have a spider hanging in the doorway, and a spicy candle burning on the counter in the kitchen. I'm thinking about buying an armful of cattails to make a decoration for the front entryway.

Yup, fall is my time of year.

My youngest sister's daughters are involved in marching band. Since I used to be a band director, it's a pleasure to see my teenage relatives participate in band. The girls attend a school that takes its marching season pretty seriously, so they attend a contest almost every week during the fall.

I plan to pack Elegante Mother up, and head off to Indiana to see the girls at one of their competitions. It's a pleasure to get out into the farm land and travel where you don't see a car for ten or fifteen miles. The harvest will be underway, and we'll be able to tell the difference in the fields from the Friday we go east, to the Sunday when we return home. We'll be watching for geese gleaning the fields, and tractors pulling corn and beans to the local co-op.

I hope for crisp weather, clear blue skies, leaves changing colors, and the excitement of the competition. Fall is my time of the year!

I got the news today that my boat widowhood may come to an end during the middle of next week. Well....actually, the boat will be taken out of the water midweek. Then there will be weeks of maintenance on the boat. So, probably I'll get to see Dear Husband on a weekend some time in late November!

Still, it's always nice to know that the season is ending two weeks early. We'll have to party the day he brings her up the drive.

It's been one of those weeks...

Friday, the drier stopped heating. We were able to get a repairman in on Monday, and had mountains of laundry waiting to be done. This morning, the plumber came and replaced a water heater, cleaned out the pipes from the air conditioner condenser, and re-connected everything in the basement. Of course, we'd had to wait to do laundry while he worked.

Before he left, I told him I wanted him to take a look at one of the air conditioners. The newer one makes quite a racket when it's running.

As....We are in flux at Arrrgh!!!

RedEagleSpirit1 has been feverishly redesigning my blog, at my request. It seems that she has been waiting years to change the look, and wondered when I would get around to requesting her help.

It's fun to see the changes from my stolid red and gray! I hope you enjoy the new look.

I'm more than a little ticked with Dear Husband tonight. He has control of the TV remote, so he's usually the person who chooses what we watch.

You need to know that I love cutesy polar bear pictures. I think I may have temporarily cleaned out the supply in Alaska when we visited two years ago.

Tonight, he chose a science show about polar bears. I should have known better than to get caught up in it. OF COURSE, it showed a male polar bear hunting polar bear cubs as a food source. OF COURSE, it showed a baby polar bear dying of exhaustion.

I know this is the reality of polar bear life, but I don't need to be faced with it in my own home. I don't care for ANY of the shows that show animals being killed in their natural environment. I understand the situation. I can't do anything about it, so why would I want to watch it?

It must be a guy thing, because it certainly isn't my cup of tea.

I want the remote for the next week or two.

I was talking with a friend a week or so ago, and he made an off-hand comment about women and their secrets.

Whoa.....what was that?? I backed up and asked him just what he meant. I never really got a definitive answer. He feels that women keep secrets from men, and I personally think that we ALL have secrets, to some degree or other.

I had planned to tell you what the Seven Wonders of Chicago are, but Dear Husband threw out the paper before I could blog. I'd even set it aside so that it wouldn't go out with the other papers! He's just too conscientious about his garbage job.

This week, on the evening news, the reporters were talking about the animals which had been evacuated from the Gulf area. A number of vets and shelters in the Chicago area have taken in the pets and are trying to find them temporary homes. Those who adopt these pets have to sign a contract which stipulates that they will return the pet to it’s owner, should the owner come forward. The shelters are taking pictures of the pets and are posting them on the Internet.

This same reporter announced that annually in Chicago 24,000 …..that’s TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND….. pets are euthanized. I’m simply appalled.

Four more weekends and the boat comes out of the water! YEA!!
Of course, then we have the emptying out of the boat, the scraping the hull, the winterizing of the boat……I probably won’t see Dear Husband until Christmas, or so.

Well, the raccoon door has been dismantled. Dear Husband went out one night this week about nine o’clock, and hammered a cover over their entrance. We thought one of the raccoons had been inside when the door was covered. I kept listening, and thought I heard one. The access to the attic in the garage was open, and the lights left on, to lure him out. Finally, DH went up into the attic and tried to see if he could see anyone scuttling around. Nope. He left the ladder in place, just in case one of them was hiding up there. I definitely don’t want a dead raccoon in my attic! This fall, DH will cut down the viburnum which grows at the front of the house. It was the raccoon’s ladder to the roof. It’s a stunningly beautiful plant, but it’s much too large for its location, and too large to transplant. Next up, new shingles

B.B. King is 80! In an interview, he said that he never sings when Lucille is playing, and she never plays when he sings. (Lucille is his guitar). It must be that conversation between the two of them that makes his music so fascinating.

Summer is over and the kids are back in school. I've lost my two summer helpers. I managed to get a picture of one of them watering the garden on his last visit. For a ten year old, he did a wonderful job watering this garden at the front door, and my herb garden. We were working one day and I asked him if he knew what plant he was watering, and he could name most of the culinary herbs.

I miss their company in the gardens.

Last Monday was Labor Day. Half of Dear Husband's kids came to spend the afternoon with us, and I went off the deep end with preparations.

My extended family numbers somewhere between 40 and 50 people, and when I cook for them it takes me all day. I figured that Dear Husband's kids deserved the same effort.

Next year, when we do this again, remind me....NO GREEN! NO SALADS!!!

I swear, I had a brain spasm. I don't know what I was thinking! I was in the kitchen at seven, and the kids weren't coming until some time after two. There would be four additional adults at the table, and one granddaughter. I made enough to feed the entire neighborhood.

Last Sunday we were invited to visit my brother's home and gardens. He and his wife have been working for several years on their gardens. Originally the lot was a flat area that backed up to a railroad track. So, he trucked in some topsoil and they created a low berm that was edged with limestone.

Then they had a stone patio added to the back of the house with weathered wood rafters to support vines. There's a fountain, and a grill, and the sidewalk meanders around the sides of the house passing through arbors with beautiful roses.

The berm was difficult to mow, so they installed a fence, and then trucked in more loads of dirt to create a terraced garden. The blend of plants is beautiful. There are shrubs and trees, annuals, perennials, herbs, roses....everything. My sister-in-law chooses the plants; my brother does the dirty work. She and I strolled along the path, and I would either call out the name of the plant, or ask her what it was. She's a firm believer in mushroom compost, and you can tell it from the size of the plants. She has the biggest "Autumn Joy" seedum that I have ever seen!

I need to have them sign on to help with the renovation of my gardens! And while they are at it....I'd like a slate patio with a little brook bubbling through it on the west side of the house. We could trail a vine here...and one there...and RHODIES......we could plant rhododendrons! I can see the raccoons lounging back on the patio furniture, sipping tall drinks.

Wow....where do I start? I didn't realize I had been away so long, but my last post was September 4th, a week ago. So much has happened. Like most of you, we've been following the news from New Orleans. The pictures are horrifying, the breakdown of services frightening. This is an issue that will have impact not just on those along the Gulf Coast, but the entire nation for years to come. I was touched to learn that survivors of the tsunami had offered us help.

Yesterday, I went to the front door to see if Ed, the master of the house, who assumes that we exist to see to his every need, was lounging on the sidewalk, waiting to be let in for his afternoon snack.

Ed wasn't there, but we had a tiny possum visitor. This little guy peered around the edge of a pot of lavender and watched to see if I was going to invite him in. After a bit, he backed up and tottered off into the ornamental grass growing at the corner of the house. He was about four, or perhaps five inches long, and had soft, fuzzy baby fur, and that heart-shaped face that possums have

I hope that Ed didn't find him. I'm not sure what this little guy was doing out at 2:00 in the afternoon. I know his mother is nocturnal. Of course, it's crossed my mind that his mother has been hit by a car, but I hope that this one is just curious and went sightseeing while Mom snoozed.

I won't put out water or food for him. It would draw him to the front area of the house where Ed would be sure to catch him. I know that most of you don't want to have possums sharing your habitat, but we're used to all sorts of wildlife passing through our grove.

I'll keep an eye out for him and try to get a picture if I can.