My New Telescope

 I've been sharing a few photos I took with my new telescope on Facebook and Instagram, but it occurred to me that I should probably post a few here.  You know, just in case I might have a reader somewhere that doesn't follow me on those sites.  

In the interest of full disclosure, I'd intended to post this on Thursday, but insomnia had hit me hard the night before, and I didn't feel like it.  I've been an insomniac for as long as I can remember.  When I was about 8 or 9, I even asked my mother how to go to sleep.  She said, "You just lay down and close your eyes, and you go to sleep."  Well, that wasn't working for me, so I said, "But how do you go to sleep?"  Fifty-ish years later, and I still haven't figured it out.  

If I had posted this Thursday, I'd have mostly shown you some of the pictures I'd taken with my telescope. 

For instance, this squirrel, eating at the feeder. 

And a couple of decent pictures of the deer. 

My silly camera kept wanting to focus on the fence, but this is still better than I was getting before. 

A female cardinal

And a male cardinal. 

On a whim, I decided to see if I could get a video of a squirrel.  Lo and behold, it worked!

And lastly, a picture of the moon. 

I've been wanting to get out and try to look at maybe Mars, but it's been cloudy ever since.  Maybe we'll have a clear night soon. 

Spend, Spend, Spend

Back when I was in the Navy, serving overseas, they only had one television station on base -- Armed Forces Network.  Of course, you could always tune into the Italian stations, but if you wanted American shows, AFN it was. 

As with anything, there were some people who were simply impossible to please.  You should have heard the complaints!  "Why are you showing religious programming on Sunday mornings?  I don't want to watch that!"  And "What's up with all the kids' shows on Saturday?"  Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

Through all that, AFN had one redeeming factor -- their commercials.  And I'm saying that with a huge dose of sarcasm.  It was a long running joke among servicemembers about how bad those commercials were.  A specific one that came to mind this afternoon was of a sailor dressing to go out on Friday night.  He was smoothing his hair in the mirror and said to himself, "I got my pay today, and I'm going to spend, spend, spend like there ain't no end."  Then his conscience appeared in the mirror and told him he needed to save first, so the young sailor sat down and wrote himself a check...all righty then...

But what does that have to do with today?  Well, I'll tell you.  It's because today, I spent, spent, spent, like there wasn't an ent ... or end, but that doesn't rhyme.  

OK, here's how all that spending started, back when Beverly and James moved back to Texas, they gave me their old Christmas tree. The house they moved in to is much smaller than the house they had here, and they just didn't have room for it.  It's a gorgeous tree, and I love it...but it's just too big for my little living room.  I have to do some serious furniture rearranging every year to make room for it.  The last couple of years, I keep saying I'm going to get a new tree, but I can't seem to find one I like.  

There is one at Walmart that I like, and is the right size, but it's clear lights, and I like multicolored.  I've been looking on Amazon, and places like Joann's and Michael's websites.  This morning, I decided to get up and go to Lowe's in Batesville to see what they had.  

On the way there, I made one additional quick stop.  See, I was adding someone to my Christmas card list, when I found a little bag of Christmas themed rubber stamps.  I've had them for a while, and have never used them.  I thought I'd give them a shot this year.  To do that, I needed some stamp pads.  Walmart in Grenada had the pack on the right, but the other ones were out of stock.  

Since I was going to be right across the street anyway, I stopped into Batesville Walmart to see if they had them, and lo and behold, there they were.  Soon as I'm done here, I'm going to go try them out.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

Once that was done, I went on over to Lowe's.  Where I found a tree I really like. 

It's 7.5' tall, with a 54" base.  My old tree has a 60" base, so this is exactly what I was looking for -- size wise at least. It's got multi-colored LED bulbs, but there are only 500 of them.  No problem, though, as I can always string more. The only real problem I have with it is it's not very realistic looking.  The needles are plastic, and you can tell.  I'm thinking it's not going to make much of a difference from across the room, but I'm going to do a little more looking around before I buy it.  

As it happens, I've been trying for a while to hire someone to come out and pressure wash my house.  I had couple of people have come and give me quotes, but none of them have shown up to actually do the job.  It seems to be a common thing around here.  

As it also happens, after I'd looked at the Christmas trees, I turned around and there they were:  pressure washers on clearance.   The one I chose was marked down from $120 to $80.  

It's just what I needed.  I'll probably only use it a few times a year, mostly to keep the moss off of my back stoop.  It did a bang-up job on that.  Here's the before picture: 

And the after:  

I'll need to go over it again to get the algae and stains off, but I had to quit when it started raining. 

But at least now, I won't be slipping on the moss and falling on my behind every time I go outside. 

My pressure washer has a detergent thing that I've got to figure out how to use.  Then, maybe I can get the stains out of my car port, too. 

And finally, a couple of days ago, one of my knitting friends posted some yarn she was trying to destash.  I quickly asked, and the price was right, so I got it -- as if I didn't have enough already.  

I was thinking I could add some of it to my sock yarn blanket, but a couple of them have enough to actually knit socks out of.   I'm definitely going to knit socks from this one. 

I like the way it was knitting up.  I'm going to have to rip this out and start over.  I can't wear plain vanilla socks because of my absurdly skinny ankles. 

In the meantime, I need to get busy on my other socks...like finding a pattern to knit.  That's help, wouldn't it?

Not A Good Day

 I knew right away what kind of day it was going to be when I woke up bright and early at 4:30 AM overly concerned about Mercy and Comfort.  I'm not quite sure what my concern was, or why I was fretting so, but there it was. 

For those of you who aren't in the know, Mercy and Comfort are the U.S. Navy hospital ships.  

The rest of the day went by uneventfully until right after lunch...when The Boss Who Must Not Be Named told us he's decided to go back to the front office.  I assumed it was to his old job, but I didn't ask.  I seem to be suffering from a deplorable lack of nosiness.  Whatever he does, it all boils down to the fact that he will no longer be our boss...who must not be named. Other Boss is now going to be our Boss.  

Nobody is very happy about that.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  I like Other Boss.  He's a really nice guy.  He's just not...The Boss Who Must Not Be Named.  

I don't want to talk about it any more...

In Knitting News, I've decided I'm going to start knitting some socks again.  I'd stopped a few years ago because I just didn't have time.  I'd had a bunch of socks I'd knit over the years, and they all started wearing out at the same time.  I couldn't knit fast enough to keep up with how quickly my socks were getting holes in them, so I copped out and started buying store bought socks.  They wear out pretty fast as well, but they're relatively cheap, so I kept on buying them.  

Part of the problem is I have these super skinny ankles.  Seriously, I lack about half an inch being able to encircle them with my thumb and middle finger.  But to get to those seriously skinny ankles, I had to work my socks over gargantuan man size heels.  Therein lies the rub.  No matter how loosely I cast on, no matter which cast on I used, the cuff was always too tight, or the sock was way too loose at the ankle and would fall down inside my shoe. 

I know, I know, some of you would say, "Just do toe up socks!"  Thing is, I tried doing those, but I'd still run into the same problem, only in reverse.  I couldn't find a bind off loose enough.  Thus, knitting socks became an exercise in frustration.  

However, now that I've found the Chinese Waitress cast on, which is the stretchiest cast on I've ever come across, I'm ready to try again.  For this attempt, I dove way back into the very back of the yarn closet and dug out this Filatura di Crose Maxime print yarn, in the Partie colorway.  Yes, that's really how it's spelled on the ball band. 

It's some I bought probably 15 years ago, down at that high dollar yarn store in Jackson.  I figure it's been marinating long enough.  Now, I just have to find a pattern.

And finally, I do appreciate my governor.  Tater Tot.  I haven't agreed with every decision he's made, but he's had a lot on his plate in his first year -- from prison riots, to historic flooding, to killer tornadoes, to an extremely active hurricane season -- all in the midst of a global pandemic.  

All that being said, this just made me laugh.  

  

OK, now that I'm done laughing, I'm off to browse sock patterns.

Laters...

Not Much Going On

I haven't blogged much, because there really hasn't been much going on, but I did have a brief moment of excitement leaving work today, and I wanted to share it with you.

We have a National Guard training center here just South of town.  They frequently use the airport across from the plant for their -- whatever it is they're training for.  It's different stuff every time.  Back when I lived on the other road, before I moved here, helicopters and airplanes frequently flew right over my house, because it was a lot closer to the airport. 

One time, Air Force One flew over.  That was exciting.  

Anyway, today as I was leaving work, I was still in the parking lot when a whole bunch of paratroopers jumped.  I quickly grabbed my camera and started shooting blind.  This is probably the best shot I got:

Oh, the things we see out at ADP.  

Hey, it's better than the view I got yesterday morning...

Dogs have no shame.

In other news, I'm still practicing my piano.  I'd stopped going through my course book to concentrate on Christmas music, but after about 2 weeks, I realized that wasn't working out.  Over the weekend, I started back on my lessons.  You may not get quite as long of a Christmas concert, but hey, them's the breaks.  

But, the songs I picked, I'm pretty sure you'll like, if I can ever get them down.  My biggest problem is I tend to play too fast.  I'm working on trying to slow things down, but it's hard.  The metronome has been a big help with that.  I watched a video on YouTube where the guy talked about the 50% Rule.  You figure out the normal speed of the song, then cut that in half and practice that way.  

It's like playing in slow motion, and I hope it helps.  

Word Of The Day

 And your word of the day today is:

Embezzle;  (V) em-bez-zle  : to appropriate something fraudulently to one's own use. 

 -- a word which may or may not have had something to do with the high profile firings out at the plant earlier this week.  

On a completely unrelated note, they're going to start giving us our monthly attendance bonuses again -- with 4 months back pay for those who qualify.  No word yet on that hazard pay essential employees were supposed to be getting throughout this pandemic, though...

Moving right along...

There really wasn't much I was interested in during this year's Prime Day.  I debated back and forth for a while about whether to upgrade my Fire Stick, and finally took the plunge.  It was supposed to arrive tomorrow, but much to my surprise it was waiting there in the mailbox this afternoon.  

Eagerly, I tore open the package and pulled out...

an orange box.  Wait, isn't it supposed to be blue? The last one I bought was in a blue box.  That's when it hit me.  I didn't have a Fire Stick.  I have a ROKU.  Sigh...I probably won't send it back, though.  There are things you can get on a Fire Stick that you can't get on a ROKU and vice versa.  Plus, my older ROKU has been acting up lately, which is one reason I decided to go ahead and upgrade.  

My other Prime Day purchase wasn't supposed to get here until Tuesday, so as you may imagine, I was even more surprised to see the Brown Truck Of Happiness pull into my driveway and drop off a box.  And what was in that box?  This!!

A telescope!  It's not a really big or powerful one, but it was less than $100, and I think it will do the trick.  And look at this:

It's got an adapter where you can hook up your phone and take pictures through the telescope.  I might just get some decent photos of my deer after all.   I hope.  Here lately, the deer haven't been showing up until after dark, so that'll make it might tricky.  

I thought this was really nice.  It's a bluetooth shutter clicker, too, so you don't get a blurry picture from jiggling the telescope when hitting the shutter icon on your phone's camera.   

It's got two different eye pieces -- a 10MM and 25MM-- and a 3X magnifier thingy.  I'm sure it's all got technical names and stuff, but frankly, the instructions left a lot to be desired.  They were written by someone whose first language was clearly not English.  It was hard enough figuring them out, even without getting all tecnhical.

Best part is, it all folds up neatly into this nifty little carrying case for easy transportation. 

Isn't that cool?  I didn't get it in time for the Harvest Moon, but you just might get a picture of the Hunter's Moon, if I can drag my lazy behind out to the lake so I can get a clear view of it, that is. 

And finally, when you have pellets, but you forget you have pellets, so you buy more pellets, then you think you have pellets, you're not completely sure if you have pellets, so you buy more pellets, just in case you don't have any pellets... 

you end up with a lot of pellets. 

Great Upheaval

 There has been a great upheaval out at the plant.  To what extent remains to be seen.  How it went about is as follows.

I get to work, bright and early this morning, and my coworker greets me by saying, "Becky, did you hear they fired [The Big Man Up Front] yesterday?"  NO!  I hadn't heard that!  

A bit later, Chief got us all together for a meeting, and confirmed it was true.  They'd fired him and one other person.  One of the other supervisors said there would be more firings coming, but at this point, that's just a rumor.  Nobody really knows why they were let go.  Someone said it was because the "supermarket" system wasn't working out, but that doesn't make sense to me.

For those of you who don't work out there, it isn't really necessary that you know what the supermarket system is.  Short version -- it's the system of getting parts to those who need them.  For example, I'm a brazer.  The parts I need are copper headers (manifolds) and adapter tubes.  The supermarket is the system by which the kitters -- those who assemble the various components  -- get those parts to us.

As I said, that doesn't make sense, because that wasn't his project.  The previous Big Man Up Front came up with that.  Then someone else said it was because some sort of testing equipment hadn't been hooked up, but I don't see them firing the man over that.  There has got to be something going on they're not telling us.  

Nevertheless, there are going to be some changes coming.  The first change is, they changed what time we're coming in -- again.  And again, I wish they'd pick a time and stick with it.  The button on my alarm clock is getting worn out from constantly re-setting it, not to mention what it's doing to my body.  And again again, I've worked there long enough to know that they'll probably change the time back in a couple of weeks or so.  Knowing them, by January, we'll be back on 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.

I'm getting too old for all of this.  

In other news, today is Prime Day on Amazon, and honestly, I haven't been too impressed with the deals.  I decided to upgrade my Roku, and I ordered one other thing that I'm not going to tell you about until it gets here.  I think you'll like it, though.  

*Not my photo.  I just put it here so there'll be a thumbnail in my FB feed.  Oh, and I can't post a link to Pinterest without a photo. 

Worried Over Nothing

Well, this was the big weekend.  My son finally brought home a girlfriend for me to meet.  I was surprisingly nervous about this -- imagining the worse scenarios possible.  What if she didn't like me?  Or worse, what if I didn't like her?  It's obvious Cody is very much in love with her, so what would I do then?  

Turns out all my worrying was -- as it so often is -- much ado about nothing, because she is absolutely precious.  She was pretty quiet at first, but Cody told me that was because she was nervous.  "She normally talks more than this, but she's nervous," he said.  I assured her that we're just ordinary people here, and she soon relaxed a bit.

They got here right about lunch time, so we took Brennan on a little tour around down, starting with a trip across the levee.  We thought about going to the visitor's center, but it was closed due to COVID, so we didn't.  We pulled into the little picnic area right beside it, got out and looked at the water.  I mentioned if it hadn't been rainy, we could have gotten our food and had on a picnic. 

But we still showed her around -- the boat landing, and the little beach I used to take Cody to when he was young.  Somewhere in the conversation, I asked if she was an outdoorsy person.  She said, "I'm from Memphis, so no."  Naturally, all that did was make me want to take her home to Texas and show her the swamps, and bayous, and woods I grew up in.  

After we'd gotten our lunch, we went home and started watching cheesy Hallmark romance movies, but ended up switching to Firefly when Cody told me she'd never watched it.  I asked him if he wanted to start at the beginning, but he said skip straight to the cunning hat episode, so we did.  And of course, I told her she couldn't be one of us unless she had a Jayne hat.  

I don't think she really liked it, but she was a good sport and put it on.  At least long enough for me to get a picture.  

After that, Cody wanted to watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Can you believe she'd never seen it?  That blew my mind!  How on earth do you grow up in the United States Of America without ever seeing Great Pumpkin?  Now, I'm wondering if she'd ever seen A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving or A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I get the feeling she's been pretty sheltered, but I didn't ask her too many questions.  She was already nervous about meeting me.  I didn't want her to feel like I was giving her the third degree.  

But I feel like we've got a whole new world we can show her.  

All in all, it was a nice visit.  But the weirdest part of the whole day was this...when I first woke up, this song was running through my head. 

I have no idea what they're saying, though, because it's in Irish.  If you couldn't tell...

And finally, I lost another acquaintance to COVID.  He'd worked out at the plant several years ago --  I think he was in IT, but I don't remember for sure.  I do remember he was a really nice man.  I hadn't seen him in years, but I'm still very sad to hear of his passing.  

Someone told me his wife, who still works out there with us, also tested positive, but I don't know for sure.  

Just keep the family in your prayers, if you would.  I know they'd appreciate it. 

Frustrations And New Things

There I was at work, Monday, I think it was, when a coworker sidled up to me and whispered soft and low, "Do you have any tips for me to get Stalker to leave me alone?"  

It was all I could do not to laugh right out loud.  Instead, I sort of chuckled and said, "No!  I can't even get him to leave me alone!"  

"I've tried everything!" she said.  "I've even come right out and told him, 'Stalker, I don't like you!  Stay away from me!' and he just won't stay away from me!"  I told her I wished I knew what to tell her, but I can't get rid of him, either.  Every morning, he sits out on a bench in the outdoor break area until he sees me walking across the parking lot.  Suddenly, he feels the need to go inside -- at the same time.

I really really need to look up that guy I had the huge crush on in Junior High and apologize to him.  Profusely. Very profusely.

So, yesterday, I get to work, and as usual, Stalker is sitting on his bench.  He sees me, then decides it's time for him to go inside.  I'm standing there, getting my temperature taken and my mask issued by the temperature and mask people when he walks by.  He goes to the door, and opens it.  He stands there, holding the door open, waiting for me.  I'm like, SERIOUSLY?????

Me, being the horrible person that I am, well, I walked through another door.  And left him standing there.  As I walked by, I muttered only half under my breath, 

Sheesh, just give it up already! 

OK, moving right along...

So, yeah, my phone and I are a bit on the outs right now.  A few weeks ago, I tried to download a new app, and the phone asked for my password.  I'm not sure why.  It hasn't asked for my password in three years, so why does it need one now?  Naturally, since I hadn't used the aforementioned password in three years, I couldn't remember what it was.  

I clicked on the "forgot password?" link, the first thing is said was to verify my phone number.  Uh, I'm ON my phone...but I played along and entered my phone number.  Aaaand it asked me to enter my passcode.  

Passcode?  PASSCODE???

If I can't remember my password, what on earth makes you think I can remember a passcode? After I'd tried everything I could think of, I clicked on the Begin Account Recovery link.  They were supposed to send me an e-mail with a link to begin my account recovery, but at the time, I didn't have time to fool with it, so I let the link expire. 

Last week, I tried again.  I jumped through all the hoops, and was supposed to get an email within 24 hours.  I didn't.  Yes, I did check my spam folder.  No email there, either. I got back onto my phone and jumped through all the hoops one more time, and they said I'd requested too many verification codes, so they weren't sending another one.  Sigh...

Next strategy...I went to the went to the website and clicked the I Forgot link there, and jumped through all those hoops.  This time, I did get the email I was supposed to get.  It says they will text or call me at 12:20 AM GMT with instructions on how to reset my password.  Oh, boy...I hope they text, because you know as well as I do that I don't answer my phone. 

By this time, I was so frustrated that I made the call to switch to Android.  I knew I could upgrade, because I paid off my current phone last December.  After running in circles on AT&T's massively frustrating, difficult to navigate website, I finally found the upgrade page...only it said I couldn't upgrade because I had a balance due.  I knew that wasn't right, because I've been on autopay for about two years.  Nevertheless, I clicked the Pay Balance link...and it showed a balance due of $0.00.  Heavy, heavy sigh... I ran around in even more circles until I found the upgrade page, and it still said I couldn't upgrade because I had a balance due. 

At this point, I threw my computer across the room and swore off technology forever.  OK, not really.  I went to bed instead.  

The only bright spot in my day was these new candles from my friend Kristine's shop. 

She has some lovely new Fall scents out now, so please go check her out. 

Finished Object!

 Yes, there is a finished object in this house!  I declared today to be a knitting while watching cheesy Hallmark movies day, and finally finished this hat. 

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, though, as it doesn't look like my friend is going to be doing her blessing bags again this year.   Oh, well, I'll put it into the gift drawer, and sooner or later, a need will arise. 

One always does. 

I spent the rest of the day working on this scarf.  

I'd debated on casting on something new, but I didn't.  I'd pulled this skein out of the bag of yarn from Suzie, 

thinking it will make a really nice scarf, or small stole.  It's single ply, so I really don't think it would hold up as a pair of socks, despite the name of the yarn.  But it's super soft, and is crying out to be a scarf.  I just have to do a little searching to find the right pattern.  

I guess the only other crafty thing I did was to pull that little cross-stitch out and try to work on it a bit.  It was then I remembered why I had stopped.  Because I can't see the fool thing!  I'm going to have to get me one of those big magnifying lights just to finish it.  I have some cheap reading glasses from Walmart that may work, if I can find a brighter light to shine on it.  I'll keep you posted.

I managed to solve one mystery, though.  I dug my owner's manual out for my keyboard, and there it is:

Instructions on how to set the touch sensitivity.  I must have hit the wrong key way back when I first got it, trying figure out how to make the different features work, and turned it off completely.  Then, the other day, I somehow got it set to hard.  Now, it's back on medium, which is normal piano settings.  I can get back to practicing my Christmas music.  

Speaking of music, I've shared this video before, but I've really been feeling my Irish lately, so I'm sharing it again.

It's originally an old folk song about a man bringing his new bride home, but during the Easter Rising of 1916, it became a rallying cry for those seeking Irish independence from British rule. 

And finally, Cody has been seeing this girl named Brennan.  He'd wanted to bring her to meet me back right in the middle of peak season, but I told him it wasn't a good time.  Today, we talked again, and I told him I've got some time off, and things are much less stressful now, so they're coming next weekend.  I'm surprisingly nervous about this.  

His birthday is a week from Tuesday, so I'm going to make him a cake.  He requested chocolate with cream cheese icing.  

Think I should make him a Texas shaped cake?  I've got a pan, you know...

Saturday Stuff

 I woke up this morning to a brisk, almost wintery 44'.  

Good thing I brought my plants in last night.  Oh, I don't really think it would have gotten cold enough to hurt them, but still...better safe than sorry.  It wasn't quite cold enough in the house to turn the heater on, but boy that coffee sure tasted extra good.  It eventually warmed up into the low 70s, and turned off absolutely beautiful.  

So, what did I do with myself on this absolutely beautiful day?  Aside from the usual laundry and other housework, I took a few moments and started sorting all of the yarn I got earlier this week.  Most of it ended up being sock/fingering weight yarn, but there was some sport and worsted in there, too.  

For some reason, these caught my eye.  

It is Happy Fuzzy Yarn, and the colorway is "Kiss Me!"  There is just about 1700 yards there.  It looks like Suzie had something in mind for this.  She'd already wound one hank into a ball, and was about halfway through winding another one.   If I knew which pattern she'd picked for this, I'd go ahead and make it.  But I don't, so I'll have to find something appropriate for it. 

In the meantime, I knitted some of it into my sock yarn blanket while I was watching football. 

Here's the interesting thing.  While I was digging said sock yarn blanket out of the closet, I found a couple of bags in there.  "Hmmm," I said to myself, "I wonder what's in these?"  Because you know my memory is about as tight as a colander.  Pulling the bags down, I found some long forgotten projects.  Starting with these:

There are a couple of scarves in there, and some extra yarn I was using to make hats.  Unfortunately, the mice had gotten to them.  The red yarn had a bit of chewed spots, and little wad of pink/white/black yarn I ended up just tossing.  It had been chewed up too much to make it even worth trying to salvage.  The rest of it is OK, except for the pink scarf.  It had one little chewed spot, but it was right at the top, and I can just tink back a row or two, cut that spot out, and keep going.  The rest is just extra yarn, which will end up likely being knit into hats.  Which I will need, because I tossed out this hat as well.      

It was in the same bag, and had more holes in it than I wanted to try to mend-  even if I could find a matching scrap of yarn.  I can't even remember what yarn that was.  Probably some Cascade 220 Superwash.  

In a separate plastic box, I found a partially finished cross stitch I started years and years ago.  

So long ago, I don't even remember how long ago I started it.  I kept it out, and am going to try to get it finished. 

I'm telling you, my piano is freaking me out a bit.  For those of you who don't know, I have a digital piano.  It's a Yamaha P71.  I've had it for a year and 4 months.  One of the things I'd been lamenting lately is that I can't play dynamics on it.  If I barely touch a key, it plays at the same volume as if I pound that thing like it's a nail.  

Until yesterday, that is.  

I was sitting there playing, practicing for your Christmas concert, when I noticed the notes sounded much softer than normal.  My first panicked thought was that my digital piano was about to crap out.  However, upon further experimentation, I discovered that my piano now plays dynamically.  If I hit the key softly, it plays a quiet note.  If I hit it hard, it plays a loud note.

I have no idea how that happened.  

I'm kind of glad it did, but it's a little freaky, as I didn't even know this piano was supposed to do that.  I guess I need to find the manual and see what it says.  In the meantime, I'm having to re-learn how to play the thing.  

This ought to be interesting. 

  

A Good Day

Today has been a good day -- and by good, I mean it's been quiet, peaceful, and relaxing.  I'll tell you more about that in a minute, but first, we had some excitement at work a couple of days ago.  

It would seem one of the temps had a bit of a disagreement with his group leader, and left.  On his way out the door, he had a few choice words -- including a particular racial slur -- for the aforementioned group leader,  none of which I will repeat here.   And he delivered those words ... over the loudspeaker. 

Later on, I overheard another group leader saying they knew who had done it, and if he showed up the next day, they'd turn him right around at the door.  But really, nobody expected him to come back, and as far as I know, he hasn't.  

Now, back to today...

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  Sunny, blue skies, and the temperature was just right.  I had some in-town errands to run, but the morning was so quiet and peaceful, it took me a while to get going.  You might say, I lingered over my morning coffee.  Buuut, I finally got my act in gear and got them done.  

By the way, the governor has let the state wide mask mandate expire, but we're still under a city ordinance until King Louis and the House of Lords -- as I like to refer to the city council -- decide to lift it.  One silver lining of having to wear masks is most of my face is covered, so I can skip the make up.  A down side is, I was hoping since most of my face would be covered, my stalker would stop staring so much.  Alas, it is not to be.  One of these days, he's going to stare so hard his eyeballs pop right out of his head, and I'm going to laugh my butt off. 

But I digress...

Where was I?  Oh yeah, running my errands, which mostly involved going to Wal-mart and picking up a few things.  I didn't really need anything, but last week, I was going to give my lawn some food before fall set in for good.  However, when I got out to my shed, I discovered what I thought was fertilizer was actually weed control.  Unfortunately, when I got to Walmart's garden center, they had like 6 pallets of charcoal up in front of all the fertilizer and stuff.  I decided not to fight it.  

If I can get my act together for two days in a row -- don't hold your breath on that one, though -- I might go up to Lowe's tomorrow and see what they have.  

While I was in the garden center, at Walmart, not Lowes, I picked up a couple of bags of cheap dirt to start filling in some of the chipmunk holes in my yard.  By the way, I caught and killed another one of the little buggers yesterday.  That makes 6 for the year.  I'm wondering how many of the stupid things there are.

I'm not sure if this hole is from a chipmunk nest or what.    

When I moved in, the top of that cleanout was level with the ground.  Over the years, the hole just keeps getting deeper and wider, and I don't really know why.  I'm kind of worried that the house will eventually fall in.  

Now, this hole is where the old septic tank used to be, from before they put this road on the municipal sewer system. 

When the plumber replaced all my sewer line, breaking up my back patio in the process,  he used some of the broken pieces of concrete to fill in the old tank, so it wouldn't collapse, but didn't fill in between the spaces with dirt or sand or anything.  I think this might be where the chipmunks have made their condo, as I keep finding fresh holes dug around the edges.  Anyway, the ground here keeps sinking down over time, and I keep adding dirt.  I'm hoping eventually it'll get full, and will stop cratering on me. 

Once I was done with that, I cut back my canna lilies.  

They were looking pretty bedraggled, and I hate cannas anyway.  One of these years, I'm going to dig them all up.  This, however, will not be that year.  

And the last thing I did -- besides giving the yard one final (I hope) mow for the year -- was to cut back my roses. 

I started by just cutting out all the dead stuff, but now I'm debating on cutting it all back and starting completely over.  Or cutting it all back and not starting completely over.  I eventually want to get a privacy fence around the back yard, and that would require cutting all the junk out from the fence anyway.  I'm going to leave the back open so I can still see the deer and the woods, but I want privacy along the front and down the sides.  I'd love to be able to enjoy my yard without having to feel I'm constantly looking over my shoulder.  

The alternative is to find a house where the neighbors aren't right on top of me.  That I can afford to buy...which is the tricky part...Oh, well, I can dream, can't I?

Kids, enjoy your childhood and don't be in a hurry to grow up.  You want to know why?  Because when you're grown, you get way too excited about buying a long handled duster. 

Then you open it up and get even more excited about dusting your ceilings and ceiling fan blades.  And you go all over your house, dusting things you couldn't reach before and squeeing at how clean your house now looks.  It's pretty sad, really...

And finally, Rylea is getting on up there.  She's 13 1/2, and has a stiff leg from when she got hit by a car as a puppy.  I've noticed lately she's have a harder and harder time getting up onto her love seat.  

Yes, my dog has her own love seat.  No, she's not spoiled at all.

So, I got her these pet steps.  

And the little brat won't use them.  

I'm not really worried about it.  I think she just needs to get used to them.  If she figures it out, it'll make it so much easier for her to get up and down.  Then, when she goes to that great kennel in the sky, I can put them by the bed for Jesse.  Who is also getting on up there...

This just in:  Tropical Storm Gamma has formed!

It's not expected to be a threat to the U.S. 

When they said it would be a busy season, they weren't kidding, were they?

Harvest Moon

 Watching the Harvest Moon rise has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. 

When Cody was little, we'd come back inside and have Harvest Moon Cookies and hot chocolate.  

Since Cody is grown and gone now, I took Suzette out to watch the moon with me.  

Then we came back inside, drank hot chocolate, and watched cheesy Hallmark movies while practicing for your Christmas concert.

Now, it's officially Autumn.  

Supposed to get down into the 40s tonight.  

And I can't wait.