Decorations

My new neighbors have Halloween decorations in their front yard.  My nearly new neighbors have Halloween decorations on their porch.  My been here a while neighbors have Halloween decorations in their front yard, and my been here longer than I have neighbors have Halloween decorations in their front yard. 

I figured it was time I got on the ball and put up a Halloween decoration in my front yard, too.  I chose this one. 

I had a tough time deciding between this one and the little stack of pumpkins, but settled on this one because I thought the kitty reminded me of Evil Incarnate.  

Nah, it's too cute to be her.  But I like it, and more importantly, I feel like I'm part of the neighborhood now.  The only thing is, it said not to use an extension cord, so I couldn't really put it where I want it, but that's OK.  I'll just have to remember not to trip over the power cord when I water my plant on the front porch. 

In knitting news, I finished the second hat from my Hobby Lobby yarn in the Painted Canyon colorway.  

It matched the first hat so closely, I had to get it back out just to prove to you I actually knit two hats, an didn't just show you the same photo twice. 

I've got one more hat already OTN before I cast on with more of my new yarn. 

And finally, I've decided to occasionally add a Meme Of The Day to my posts when I find one that catches my eye.  This one made me laugh way more than it should have. 

Believe me, we all could use a good laugh these days. 

And finally, that thing about Stalker working at that other plant may not be true.  One of the brazers has a friend that works there and the friend said he's not down there. Maybe he'll show up, or maybe it was all talk.  We'll see. 

I Should Have Known

I should have known not to get my hopes up.  After being let down so, so many times, I shouldn't have expected this time to be any different.  

Yep, you guessed it.  The firewood guy flaked on me.  He messaged me right after I got home from work and told me -- after leading me on for a solid week-- that, oh, he didn't have enough seasoned wood to make up a load after all, so he wouldn't be able to bring it.  

Seriously?  Then why the heck did you advertise if you don't even have what you're trying to sell?????

I suppose I should give him credit for being honest about it.  He could have just brought the green wood and not said anything about it.  Still, I don't even know what to do other than just not have any fires at all.  I'll keep looking, but really at this point, I'm tired of trying. 

On a more pleasant note, I finished another hat last night. 

One more to go, then I'm going to box them all up and send them off to their intended recipients.   Just for good measure, I wanted to show you why the red hat was so tough to knit.  See these two yarns?  

They're both the same brand (Red Heart) and both listed as worsted weight, but you can see the red one is nearly twice as thick as the purple yarn.  I'll still use the red.  I'll just need to remember to use bigger needles. 

That's all I have for today, so I'll just leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer. 

Halloween

Normally, I don't go all ghoulish and gory on Halloween, but when I saw this mask in Walmart a few weeks ago, I simply couldn't resist.  

As soon as I saw it hanging there, I thought, "Boy, I'll bet I can scare the life out of [Coworker] with this mask!"  And even though it was kind of pricey, I bought it anyway. 

I went to work bright and early this morning, and as soon as I got to my stand, I put the mask on.  I had to take it off before my shift started because I couldn't see a blamed thing, but before...I was doing something -- I don't even remember what -- and when I turned around, I heard a scream.  Success!

The really funny thing is, sometime later, I walked over to tell that same coworker something.  She was talking to someone else, so I patiently waited behind her for her to finish, because interrupting is rude, you know. 

But when she turned around and saw me there -- without the mask on, mind you -- she screamed even louder than before.  I laughed so hard I thought I was going to wet on myself. 

In other news, I submitted a search request to USPS for my still missing stamps.  Hopefully, that'll kick them in the rear to track them down and deliver them. 

And finally, I'll leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer, 

First Fire

It would seem winter has finally decided to pay us a little visit.

It was 45' when I got up this morning, and since I'd gotten a load of firewood delivered yesterday, I decided to splurge and light a fire in my wood box.  

It didn't last long, as it warmed up pretty quickly once the sun came up.  However, it's supposed to get down into the 30s later this week, so there will likely be more fires in the near future.  No, not likely -- definitely.  

By the way, I'm not really pleased with the guy who brought the wood.  Oh, the price was right, and it was good wood -- red oak and hickory, but the dude wanted to cut a hole in my fence so he wouldn't have to walk all the way around to where I store it.  No, you're not cutting a hole in the fence, dude!  If that's going to be a problem, I can always buy wood from someone else. 

In anticipation of the coming cold weather, I took this opportunity to go ahead and bring my outside plants inside.  Well, some of them, at least.  I still need to bring in my hanging plants from the front porch.  

I wasn't quite sure what to do with my Christmas Cacti, though.  I normally put their shelf right there where that step is, but that is where the cat likes to lay and look out the window.  For now, I put them by the front door, 

although I may move them later on.  I'm going to have to when I get the Christmas stuff out, because my living room is pretty small.  I'll probably put them back into their usual spot by the back door, and the cat will just have to live with it.  Squeaky liked to sit on that bottom shelf and look out the window.  Maybe Cutie will like that as well.  Oh, and I'm considering changing her name to Bellatrix.  Not that it matters.  I mostly call her "cat" anyway.  

In knitting news, I'm sure you will all be pleased to know I finished the cowl I've been working on for what seems like forever.  

I haven't washed and blocked it yet, but once I have, I think it will be long enough for the recipient to pull up over her head, in the instance she needs just a bit of warmth on her ears.  Here we see Charlotte modeling the as yet unblocked cowl/wimple.  

I guess that's all I have to talk about today, so I'll leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer: 

Happy Halloween!

Random Thoughts Of A Halloween Evening

 1.  Once again, I didn't get any Trick-Or-Treaters.  I'm not surprised, living in an out of the way neighborhood as I do.  Darn.  I guess I'll have to eat all this candy myself. 

2.  My Supervisor has a bull horn.

2.  You know what else my supervisor has?  A giant bear costume.

And some pretty sweet dance moves, too. 

4.  Well, I lost.  The game of seeing how long we can go without turning on the heater, I mean.  I just can't deal at 3:30 in the morning, so I threw in the towel and turned mine on. Just enough to take the chill off the house. 

It's supposed to be even colder in the morning.  I've got a little firewood left, but I'm going to have to be stingy with it.  Several people have posted firewood for sale in some of the local groups, but they either don't answer my messages, or they refuse to deliver, or want cash only.  I contacted one person from a little town just about 10 miles from here, and he wanted an extra $50 to deliver, and he wanted cash only.  Yeah, that's not going to happen. I'm thinking I'm going to be spending a lot of time under blankets this winter. 

5.  I told myself all day long that I was going to go out to the lake this evening and watch the moon rise over the water.   Here at the house, there are too many trees to see it until it's well over the horizon and no longer big and orange.  Unfortunately, these ball games were too good to walk away for that long.  Well, one of them was, at least. Texas knocked off OK ST in overtime.  LSU is not having a good season, and that's all I have to say about that. 

Even so, I got the old telescope out and took some photos of the moon once it cleared the trees.  Or almost cleared them.  

I may go out here again in a little bit and take some more, once it's fully cleared all the trees.

Then I put my 3x magnifier in and took some close ups of the surface.  

No, it's not completely round because the image was too big for the eyepiece.  I haven't figured out how to zoom out.   Actually, I don't think you can, other than switching the eyepieces out to change the magnification factor.  Eh, it's a cheap telescope.  I'm already wanting to upgrade, but the really good ones are pretty high dollar.  A bit much for my budget right now.  

6.  I had to work this weekend.  It was supposed to be inventory this week, so I didn't put in a vacation day.  I'm kind of glad, because we had a special guest out at the plant. 

7.  I guess that's all I have for tonight, so I'll just leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer. 

And Just Like That

Just like that, we're all back to hating Port Isaac.

This morning was the coldest yet, and tomorrow is supposed to be even colder.  I'm still resisting turning on my central heat, but I've got wood up in the wood box to start a fire in the morning.  I'd planned on going in to town and getting new glasses, but all I ended up doing was knitting on the blanket.

I went out and filled up my bird feeders and the squirrel feeder.  By the time I got back into the house, I couldn't feel my toes.

Your PSA for today:  rubber boots have no insulation.  You might as well be barefoot.

Oh, and my latest Yes.Fit medal arrived today.

This one is the Headless Horseman, from the Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.  Kind of appropriate that it arrived on Halloween.  If you ever decide to do any of these races, that is a good one.  Very pretty scenery, and interesting land marks.  I haven't signed up for any more races at the moment.  I'm considering doing the Loch Ness one next, but will probably wait until after the New Year before I start another one.

Kind of no point in dieting until after all these holidays are over.

Speaking of holidays, another Halloween has come and gone, and I didn't get one single trick or treater.  I guess I'll have to eat all this candy myself. 

Hey, it's a tough job but somebody's got to do it. 

And with that, I will leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer:

And bid you good night. 

Halloween Surprise

I got me a nice little Halloween surprise this evening.

Cody and his roommate have found a new apartment, which allows aquarium type pets, so he came home to get his snake.  And the rest of his stuff, of course.

He won't have to go back until tomorrow, so I'll just leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer,

and bid you all a good night.

Halloween

I was trying to think of something witty and clever to post for tonight, but my brain has been scattered all day.  I thought if I looked through some old Halloween posts, I might find inspiration.

In reading those old posts, I'm astonished at how many times I told you that we don't do much for Halloween, because Cody is adamant we not celebrate it.  Almost every year, until he grew up and left home.

Then I'd show you a picture of my fake light- up Jack O' Lantern, and tell you that in the morning, I'd turn it around and it would do double duty as a plain pumpkin for my Thanksgiving decorations.

Then, I would end all the posts with my traditional Halloween prayer:

I'd thought I would do something different this year, but then I said, "Why mess with a good thing?"

So, here you go!

We don't do much around here for Halloween.  Cody is adamant we not celebrate it.  I did put out my fake light-up Jack O' Lantern, though.  In the morning, I will unplug it, turn it around and it will do double duty as a plain pumpkin in my Thanksgiving decorations.

And now, I will leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer:

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long legged beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
May the Good Lord deliver us!

Scary Things

Yesterday was our annual inventory day at work. Long time readers may remember back in the day, inventory was pretty rough. We'd go in at 5:30 (yes, that is ante meridian), and sometimes not get off until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. Over the last few years, they'd made changes and streamlined the process, so that it only took 4 or 5 hours to do inventory. I was usually home by noon.

I am convinced that my place of employment sits around and figures out what makes the most sense so that they can do just the opposite.

I've been inventorying the tubing department ever since I started. I've been doing it longer than I have been writing this blog. I can inventory tubing in my sleep. This year, they decided I needed to inventory the stock room.

What the heck? I don't know anything about the stockroom. What's worse, this year they decided that each card writer (that's the person who fills out the inventory slips that the office puts into the computer) needs to have what they call a chieftain following him around all day.

First off, I do not like people hovering over me while I'm trying to work. Drives me up the wall. Secondly, I have been doing inventory for a long, long time. I know what to do. I don't need someone pestering me while I'm doing it. Finally, my chieftain had never done inventory before. He had no idea what he was doing. I was having to correct him.

For example, he came to me and said, “I found some more of such and such part, just add them to that other ticket.” I had to tell him that you can't do that. “I'd have to void the entire card and rewrite it, so I'll just write another card for these parts.”

I managed to get my job done, even though I could have done it in half the time had I not had a chieftain worrying me to death all day, and getting in the way.  I swear, I couldn't move without tripping over him.  We finished our area around 9:30, but my chieftain decided we (my counter and I) needed to go help Other Chieftain with his area.

“I can't just go help Other Chieftain. Only those people assigned to Other Chieftain's area can write cards for that area. I'll have to go get cards assigned to Other Chieftain's area.”

I didn't want to go help Other Chieftain, because I knew what would happen, and it happened exactly that way. As soon as we got over there, Other Chieftain's people stopped and stood there for the rest of the day watching us do their work. Not only that, Other Chieftain told them they could go on home, while he made us stay to finish his area. I was one of the last of the floor people to get to leave. Made me so mad. Not that I mind helping, but I shouldn't have to do their work FOR them.

Anyway, back in my Navy days, we had a term for what went on the the plant yesterday.  I sure hope they go back to the old way next year.

When I got home, I called the guy who bought my trailer. I had some more papers to bring to him. He said he'd call me this morning and we'd meet somewhere in town and make that exchange. Good, I'd just wait until today to go do my shopping. Only he never called. I went into town anyway around 9:00 AM, hoping to beat the rain.

I didn't make it.

It started sprinkling on me about halfway into town and hasn't stopped yet. It's supposed to rain all weekend, up until Monday morning. Could be worse. It's 10' in Fairbanks right now, where my sister lives.

So, the plan for today was to polish my hinges up 

and get my doors back onto my bathroom cabinets. The doors need a few touch ups, but for the most part, they are done. 

However, when I got home from the store, there was a package in my mailbox. What was in said package?

Yarn! My friend Abby sent me some yarn for the blanket. I should be able to add several squares to my sister's blanket with all this yarn. There is even some that I can add to my blanket.

Since knitters are the most generous people on the planet, she also sent me two hand knit dishcloths as a housewarming gift.

Just the thing to brighten up this chilly, rainy day.

Thank you, Abby! You're the best!

The good news is, some of the Halloween candy managed to survive until tonight.  What with the weather being bad and all, most parents are looking to go to the indoor activities at local churches, so I might not need it after all. But it's there, just in case. 

No matter what, we do need this: 

From Ghoulies and Ghosties 

And long legged beasties

And things that go bump in the night

May the Good Lord deliver us.

Lesson For The Day

Do not --I repeat, do not-- imitate the spooky voice from a scary story while walking the dogs...

alone...outside...in the dark...on Halloween night.

You will scare yourself.

Trust me on this one.
 

From ghoulies and ghosties

And long legged beasties

And things that go bump in the night

May the Good Lord deliver us.