Sunny Daze and Falling Leaves

 Thought for the day:  I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree... (yada, yada, yada)
[Joyce Kilmer]

Yeah, I love trees, too. Some of them are sooooo beautiful and majestic, and without a doubt, the shade they provide in the hot summertime is definitely welcomed and appreciated. But, this time of year? Not so much.

The first time I drag the rake out is downright enjoyable. Almost. Starts out that way, anyhow. Then the bugs start biting, and the miserable &*^%$ gnats start buzzing around my head, and make me feel like Schultz's dirty kid Pigpen. Then comes a pain here and an ache there, followed by a dry mouth, sneezing, and a runny nose. (And that's only five minutes into the job.) Next morning? Darned if the inconsiderate rat bastard leaves aren't ankle-deep all over again.

Know what? If I work hard enough at it, maybe I can forget about the exercise, and learn to ignore the leaves, no matter how deep they get. Like the cat in this picture. And like  the cat I'm married to. (Smarticus thinks raking leaves is a monumental waste of time.)

On the other hand, I miss these trees. Palms. The kind we saw when we visited our family in Florida. This picture doesn't begin to do them justice, though. They looked so cool silhouetted against the dark sky and full moon. (And bonus! Nobody has to rake up after them, either.)

And I miss these trees, dripping with Spanish moss. (And okay, dripping with quarter-sized banana spiders, too, but hush... I'm on a roll.) Dramatic looking trees, aren't they? Just loverly...

(Just in case you've never seen a banana spider...)









To tell the truth, I wouldn't mind having to rake up all the leaves in our yard if our trees had the decency to put on a nice technicolor show for us first. Nope, not this year. This year, it's brown... then down. (and down and down and down...) Heck, some of the leaves are committing suicide while they're still green. Then they just lay on the ground, shriveling up into crunchy skeletal remains. No breath-taking color. No slow strip tease of leaves. Just big ol' dumps of brown (and green) leaves. (sigh)

Okay, I'll admit it. It isn't the leaf-raking that's turning me into a kvetching ol' fartessa. And it isn't really the Florida trees... or heat... or bugs... I miss.

It's the kids I miss. (Although the kid with the beard came home with me.)

Princess Olivia is a little Southern belle.

                                                                             

Three-month-old Atlas is a real heart-stealer.

                                       

He sure stole mine.

And big sister Jordan's.

                                 

And grandpa's.

Even big brother Josh thinks it's pretty neat to have another dude around.

I'll tell you about some of the things Smartacus and I did while we were in Florida... next time. But before I go, let me ask you. Do you rake leaves, or do you let nature... or possibly a lawn mower... take care of them for you? (Sometimes, I wonder if I'm the last person in North America who still uses an old-fashioned rake instead of one of those noisy annoying leaf blowers.)

Oh yeah, Don't forget. You know what tomorrow is in the U.S., don't ya?

Don't forget to vote! If you don't vote, you can't kvetch about who wins the election.

Oh, wait! One more thing. Have any of you been experiencing difficulty changing your header picture? I go through all the usual steps, but the old picture is... still there. ( I really *need* to change the header to the yam with the Falcons banner before the team loses all chances of winning a couple more games this season. They (ahem) obviously *need* my support...)

Atlas dressed as a football. But don't worry. There were no spiral passes or spiking involved.

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

A Halloween Howdy

Thought for the day:  Halloween was confusing. All my life, my parents said, "Never take candy from strangers." And then they dressed me up and said, "Go beg for it." I didn't know what to do! I'd knock on people's doors, and go, "Trick or treat!" "No thank you." [Rita Rudner]

Hi-ya. I'm back. Sorta. We're back in town, but I'm not really full tilt boogie on blogger yet. Too many other things to do. (sigh) Really, I've been working my butt off... Oops! Darn. Never mind. I just looked, and it's still there. (Dammit.) Anyhow, I've been restocking the larder, raking a mountain's worth of leaves, washing a mountain of laundry, shampooing carpets... you know, all that fun stuff. And guess what? We even went to the movies! First time in fifteen or twenty years, so talk about sticker shock over the cost of tickets. (But we saw Gravity... in 3-D! Loved it!) Anyhow, I wanted to take a few minutes to wish y'all a Happy Halloween.

So, Happy Halloween!!! (y'all)

Okay, just a few quick pictures, and then I've gotta run...

AR-AR-AR!!! Granddaughter Devyn makes one cute pirate, doesn't she?

But she makes a cute bumblebee, too.
Aaron's our super little man,  Kymber's always a little princess. and (shhh... don't tell him!) I'm not sure about Jaiden's costume. Power Ranger, maybe? Whatever he is, he's a cute one.

And here's three of the Florida grands, modeling some of their costumes while we were in Florida. I do declare, Persephone looks like she stepped right out of the pages of Gone With the Wind, doesn't she?  Ella makes a super duper Jasmine, and Olivia? A delightful pirate lass.




Okay, I'm gonna include a few you've gotta be kidding me pictures of dogs dressed up for Halloween. The poor beagle doesn't look at all happy, does he?

Doggone it, (heh heh) I've really gotta go. But before I do, let me remind y'all to turn those pesky clocks back an hour on Saturday night...

                                       Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Know what? I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween. (Pssst! Don't forget to practice safe hex!)

Kiddie Cuddling Time

Thought for the day:  If I can't "halp" a friend, what good am I?

If you're like me, you already have a HUGE stack of books waiting to be read, and every day, you hear about a couple more you'd like to add to your pile.

So, I'm gonna give a real quick shout-out about a few more (Gee thanks, Susan...) that I think you'd enjoy. Really. Quick. Because then I'm gonna toss a reworked rerun post your way.

 As a widow traveling alone to exotics places, Jo Carroll dared to face her fears and expand her horizons, and in the process, she proved quite handily that a gap year of travel isn't just for young college students. In this down-to-earth account of her adventures, this courageous British mum and grandmother takes her lucky readers along with her.













The latest book by Anne Gallagher is a terrific tale of the bonds forged between teachers in an orphanage during the Napoleonic Wars. Beautifully written as an auctioned prize for a fundraiser at her daughter's school, (neat idea, huh?) this tale is different from her usual regency and contemporary romances. What she offers here is  a touching, and sometimes humorous, account of sacrifice, duty, honor, and love.

 I didn't think I cared much for sci-fi. Not anymore. I read that when I was a kid. Then I bought this first book in Alex's trilogy. I liked it so much, I bought the other two books before I'd finished this one. Yeah. That good.

Um, this one's pretty good, too. (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)














Okay, I kept that short and sweet, but my enthusiasm for all three (okay, four) of those books is sky high. Check 'em out! Now, for that redone rerun I promised. Hope ya like it!

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Thought for the day:  I never use the cell phone in the car. I like to keep my hands free for making gestures.  Maxine

With age comes wisdom. Or so they say. Sometimes it forgets the wisdom, and comes all by itself. And if we're very very lucky, the wrinkly years also  bring ... grandchildren.

Yep, it's that time again. Time for me to venture away from the computer for a couple weeks to spend quality time with some of our grandchildren. This time, I even get to meet our almost three-month-old grandson Atlas (Yes, my kids DO pick some unusual names!) for the first time. Woo HOO! So it'll be awhile before I do any new posting or commenting. But I'll be back, so please hold my spot in the blogosphere, okay?

Life is good. And, no doubt about it, we've been blessed with flipping good luck (many times over) when it comes to grandchildren.

Before I go, I thought I'd share a chuckle with you about another grandmother. This is a laugh-o-licious piece that's been around the Internet a time or two, but I'm hoping it'll be new to some of you. It's supposed to be a letter from an 88-year-old grandma to her granddaughter.

Dear Granddaughter,

The other day I went up to our local Christian book store and saw a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting. So, I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper. Boy, am I glad I did; what an uplifting experience that followed!

I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is, and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It's a good thing someone else loves Jesus, because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed.

I found that lots of people love Jesus!

While I was sitting there, the guy behind me started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "For the love of God, go! Go! Go! GO!" What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! 

Everyone started honking!

I just leaned out my window and started waving and smiling at all those loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love.

There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach. I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. I asked my young grandson in the back seat what that meant, and he said it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something.

Well, I have never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign right back. My grandson burst out laughing. Why, even he was enjoying this religious experience!

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment they got out of their cars and started walking toward me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed.

So, grinning, I waved at all my new brothers and sisters in Christ, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again, and felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared.

So I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away. Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!

Will write again soon.

Love, Grandma

And so I'm off to prepare for some serious kiddie cuddling. (As opposed to kitty cuddling. Alas, our kitties will NOT be amused.)

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.