Haiku for Fall

Now the Russet leaves

Are dancing, swirling gaily

Summer's last Fireflies.

Sisters, Halloween. and MICE!

Another warm day to welcome in the new month, wish it could stay this warm until April and then warm up a little!

Linda hurt her back last week and is still spending a lot of time on the mattress in the living room so I made a big pot of Bean and Kielbasa soup, throwing in a bunch of other stuff and cooking 'til it was thick and filling.We ran it down late in the day so it would be there for last night, driving carefully as we watched out for all the little ghosts, dinosaurs, ballet dancers and the likes doing the annual trick or treat. Since all of the kids on our road are grown and gone [including our own] I miss the Halloweens that brought many little faces to our door, sacks and hollow pumpkins in tow. We were always appropriately frightened and surprised and had to be told who this scarey or beautiful person was, even if they had been playing on the swing set a few weeks ago.

Stopped up to see sister Jeanne today, carrying a bag of books that I am finished with, a few pears, apples and winter squash and had a nice visit if complaining about rising prices, aching joints and the state of the things in general can be considered "nice". She has a new perm and is looking great considering that she had cancer surgery a year ago this past summer, went through the required radiation and chemo treatments and didn't even lose her hair!

Met our son-in-law at a local diner where he treated us to breakfast, a fantastic Belgian Waffle, hiding under a huge tent of strawberry-cherry sauce and topped with whipped cream. I ordered it and then split it with Norm. We did well deserved justice to it even though my inner calorie counter was yelling "No...Stop" most of the time I was eating.

Then home to check the mousetraps. The peanut butter has all been licked off so we know there are more of the little devils upstairs and last night, Norm saw one in the kitchen. Blackie has been spending a lot of time in that area lately but evidently his mousing abilities went along with his masculinity. It is such a temptation to leave them alone, they are tiny and really kinda cute, but there would soon be dozens and I must be sensible about things like this. They are welcome outdoors but we just can't  start a retirement home for mice.

Indian Summer

Another gorgeous day. Indian Summer made it this year albeit a speck late. The next few days are supposed to be warm and if we are lucky, no rain until Tuesday. Today was a gift. The sky was the bright singing blue that the poets write about and along our country roads the oaks still sport their coppery-russet leaves. Enough vivid red and sunshine yellow leaves flutter in the wind to make a merry dance, while the gray squirrels rustle madly from tree to tree, gathering nuts to hide now and forget later when the snow blankets the ground in a few weeks time.

As I pack away bushels apples and store bags of Yukon Golds, I feel a kinship with these little creatures, we too, know worse times are coming. The age-old sense of preservation speaks to all creatures, great and small. Sometimes I think squirrels typify the problem that I and some others share, to rush around madly, aquiring more than we need and then forgetting why we got it in the first place. Sometimes, what seems to be enough can be too much.   Peace......

This and That

Another day of depressing news...more kids killed in Viet na..oh sorry, Iraq, no WMD's yet, more jobs lost up here in good old NY state, SS benefits going up but Medicare increases will take care of that as it is going up by 13.5%.

The wind blew over yet another huge tree,  [broke off about 15 feet from ground] and the tractor needs a new radiator so until the tractor is fixed DH can't haul the tree over to get it cut up.

My trip to Binghamton to see "I Capture the Castle" was waylaid by car trouble and I think today was the last showing so I am throughly annoyed because I really wanted to see it. 4 star review and a British film which are usually better done than the garbage Hollywood spews out. I did see Seabiscuit and Chicago, both of which I loved and Open Range which had fantastic scenery, good acting and too much "Bang Bang Bang" at the end to suit my taste.

On a better note, we had a couple of breathtakingly beautiful days this week, the ones that make me think of Helen Hunts'poem  " Octobers' Bright Blue Weather". Cerulean skies and trees painted with vivid oranges, scarlets, topaz, pale lemon and magentas with enough evergreens among them to make any artist grab for their brushes. I am still hoping to get back to painting this year.

Upstairs work progressing slowly but anything is better than nothing so I keep chugging along. My room is livable now although it has some overflow from another room I am working on. I need to do some painting in there and DH has repaired the six over six windows which are about 130 years old. They don't make this type in wood anymore.  Curtains in the spare room looked good but dirty, they disintegrated into rags when I washed them..oh well, such is life!

Check in for more. Christmas is on the way and I have several Christmas pages on AOL Hometown under my Niteowl screen name which will show up on Wetdog4.  If you are a Christmas nut, please feel free to visit.

Catching Up

Gettting back to normal. After 6 years of incapcitating illness my life is finally getting on track.
I told my husband last winter "if I die in my sleep. ..drag me down to the bottom of the staircase BEFORE you dial 911. Even dead I don't want anyone to see that horrible upstairs" That was when I was still on prednisone, dragging around the 30# I gained while taking it and heaving everything I didn't know what to do with upstairs in our 11 room house.
Flash forward to late Spring, I am finally getting off the Pred, hating the mess my house is in and knowing that I am a pretty lousy housekeeper at best.  Think, Paula, use your COMMON SENSE! There has to be a solution [probably consisting of WORK!]
In a weak moment I signed up for Flylady,  a paragon of cleanliness  who clutters my E-mail box with little notes..."clean your sink, make your bed, use an egg timer to clean for 3 minutes, set the alarm clock and clean for 5 minutes, and on and on til I had to unsuscribe to get the time to do anything other than read messages.
I did pick upon a couple of tips though. My place didn't get this way in a month and it won't be cleaned up in a month. I picked one room, worked every day a minimum of 20 minutes which sometimes turned into 2 hours and after a month and a half, had one room back to normal. Next, I turned to that terrible hall bedroom and have been plugging away at that most of the summer. I solved the "what to do with all of this junk" problem the easy way...threw out 20 %, gave away 15 % and put 15 % into the guest room I finished cleaning. That leaves half of it still up there but at least there is a path in case the 911 crew needs to make a midnight visit.
Next on the list, my bedroom, which at present resembles one of those haunted houses you see at Halloween, narrow paths, everything disguised by blankets, spreads, old clothes and lots of creepy cobwebs. The rug is barely visible but what the heck, I am really sick of the horseradish mustard color anyway. However, the dust is making my sinusitis flare up so that means hoe out time like it or not!

Tune in  for next installment.