Happy Halloween!

Stay safe and have a happy time!  Life is great!  God Bless America!

A Pretty Tree

I have mentioned a couple times about the lack of color change on the trees in our area.  There are some hints of color starting in a few trees now.  Our temperatures have slowly been cooling down and we've had a couple nights that have been in the 30's and 40's.  I think that is spurring them on.

I was out doing errands this morning and when I went to the Post Office to drop off some mail I saw this beauty!

It is even prettier up close.  All the other trees in that area are still green.

Other than that today is normal.  Getting some home chores done, the errands, the laundry, etc.

Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Early Halloween Fun

I hope you are all well and happy!

Thursday night through early Saturday we had rain and wind and things are still a bit muddy out in the yard.  But the sun is out and wind has lessened today.  So, no yard chores happening and no golf being played.  But Les is planning on playing tomorrow.  He is watching the Browns game on TV right now.

I've just been keeping up with all the normal things and I've started a little extra "Fall cleaning".

Last evening we went along to Trunk-or-Treat.  Fun time!  Cutie Girl and Little Miss E were very good and enjoyed the event.

Life is great!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Just a Fall Day!

It is currently a 52 degree, sunny, but breezy day here.  I could see a little frost on the grass at the golf course this morning.  It's only supposed to get a few degrees warmer this afternoon.  So, yay!  Fall!

I had to make a quick run to Best Buy.  The protective cover fell off my new phone.  Wouldn't stick back on.  It was under warranty and we had been told if we had any problems with anything  to come back to the store, specifically the Geek Squad desk.  I was there when the store opened at 10:00.  By 10:08 I was back in Kirk and heading out of the parking lot.  All fixed up with a new screen cover!

Then I went through the Soap n' Suds car wash.  Came home and did the detailing.  And while I had Kirk sitting on the driveway, I cleaned the garage floor.

Les had gone to the "Y" and when he got home he emptied Spock and then he went to the car wash.  So we must have been thinking the same things again!

Life is great!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

A Real Effort!

I have mentioned how the leaves haven't really started changing color around here and some are just turning brown and falling off the trees.  Our small tree in the front yard that is slowly dying has made an extreme effort.  I saw this bright red leaf on it and took a picture.

The leaf is actually much brighter that this shows and as you can see it is surrounded by the brown dry leaves.  I'm going to miss this tree.

Life is still great.  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Gotta' Love This Tech Support

I just finished up what seemed like a couple hours with Verizon Wireless tech support.  It wasn't really that long, just seemed like it because this stuff still makes me tense and causes anxiety.  But I spoke with two nice young sounding ladies who were both helpful.

I think the problem of getting into our account is solved.  Several issues were corrected.  But I had to approve the remote control process and let one of them take over.  The interesting thing was what showed up on my screen.

10:48 AM Connecting...
10:48 AM Connected. A support representative will be with you shortly.
10:48 AM Support session established with Jesus.
10:49 AM You have granted full permission to Jesus. To revoke, click the red X on the toolbar or press Pause/Break on the keyboard.
10:49 AM Remote Control started by Jesus.
11:05 AM Jesus has ended the session.
11:05 AM Remote Control by Jesus stopped.

Seems like a good idea to let Him take control!

I asked the young lady at the time about this and she said they don't put their full real names on there and decided this was a good idea.  Seems right to me.

Have a good day!  Stay safe!  Life is great!  And God Bless America!

Huh. Just Stuff

It's a sunny 42 right now; not as windy as yesterday.   Les layered up and went to play golf.  I hope they have a good round.

It was a Starbucks morning here and I've had my dark roast coffee, breakfast, read the paper, and done the usual morning stuff.  Going to tackle finishing the window cleaning, do a couple errands and go to the "Y" today.

The furry boys have been busy.  Finnigan got all excited when I was getting the Christmas things out of the closet yesterday to rearrange to fit the new tree in.  He was disappointed when I put everything back in and closed the doors.  They like helping with the decorations and want to hurry things along so they can sleep under the tree.  I told him it won't be too long.

Then last night we were watching "Last Ship" and it was almost to the end of the show and the TV shut off.  WTH!  Les hadn't touched the remote.  The boys had been walking around and behind the TV and "someone" stepped on the power strip and turned things off.  This is not the first time this has happened.  Fortunately we were recording the show, so we just  found the spot and watched it after things were back in place.

Basically I just wanted to say hi!  I hope everyone is having a good day!  Stay safe and God Bless America!  Life is good!

No particular reason for the picture.  I just thought it was cute!  😊

Checked Off the "List" and Some Early Christmas Memories

I may have mentioned that Les and I needed to buy a new Christmas tree this year.  The trees are now out and on display in the stores around here.  We know it isn't even Halloween yet, but time moves quickly.  And to be blunt, I had no intention of waiting until the weekend after Thanksgiving to look for one.  The stock gets picked over quickly on some things and we agreed we wanted colored lights.  Those are not easy to find, seems most folks like all white lights on their trees.

We both grew up with colored lights on the trees.  I remember the reflectors that were put around each of the large bulbs to help prevent fire.  Thankfully, the cool bulbs have been invented and LED lights seem to be the norm now.

After breakfast this morning and after doing some of the morning things, we went to Lowe's.  We had a short list of things we needed and looking at trees was on the list.

Year ago - a lot of years ago - Les and I could not get through Christmas preparations without a disagreement that including shouting and tears.  This was back when we still got live trees.   He couldn't  help the shouting.  I would have shouted, too, but I come from a genetic line of criers.  We didn't plan to disagree.  It was just that the Christmas trees did not cooperate.  We'd usually be picking them out during a dark  evening.  It would be cold and depending on where we were living it would be snow and ice covered. They would not fit into or onto the car.  Then they would not fit into the tree holder. And one notable one was so crooked that when we did finally get it home and into the house, we had to tie it up to the wall to keep it from falling over.  It was still pretty, but Geez!  What an experience!

Then after Jacquie had been sick several Christmases in a row the pediatrician suggested perhaps she was allergic to the Christmas tree.  So we switched to artificial trees.  This worked out great, she felt better, and I could decorate earlier and not worry about a naked needle-less tree on Christmas or having a spontaneous combustion event.

And that brings us to this morning, let's just say we had a small discussion while standing there among the lovely trees.  Nothing major, but just a very faint hint of times past.  But we bought a tree, and we laughed about it on the way home.  It looked lovely there in the store and hopefully the one that is in the box now in the library closet will be beautiful.  I think it's going to be a lot bigger than the one it is replacing.  This might be a year when ALL the ornaments get put on the tree!

So, as always, Life is Great!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Remember, every tree is beautiful in its own way.  😊

Yes, Definitely Fall Now

Crisp air,  heating system turned on, hint of frost on the roof in the mornings, and the Furry Boys wanting to share the quilts.  Life is great!

Stay safe and God Bless America!

Angus

Things Getting Done

Things are just humming along here.  The temperatures are getting cooler.  Sometimes there is a crisp feel in the air.  No color change in leaves yet, but a few of them have just given up and turned brown and fallen off the trees.  The weather has not been kind to them this year.

Les and I have had a couple appointments.  Mostly just routine stuff and okay.

The yard work is under control.

We had our handyman guy here to do several repair jobs.  Nothing major, just some jobs we needed help with.  Our HVAC guy was here to do the Fall check-up on our heating system and we're ready to turn that on when we need it.  Might be soon since this week the night time temperatures are forecast in the 40's.

I've done just a little more Christmas shopping.  Also ordered some stamps since I saw on the news that there is going to be another price increase.

I think soon I will tackle cleaning the windows and start the Fall cleaning.  Anyone else remember helping with the Fall cleaning when you were kids?  Grama would drag her rugs out of the house and hang them over her clothesline.  If I was there, it was my job to whack them a thing that looked like a tennis racket.  While the rugs were out, she was washing and waxing the floors.  And then she liked to use the stuff that was the precursor to Play-Doh.  It was green, came in a gallon can, had the Play-Doh smell and we'd make balls of it and rub them all over the wallpaper to clean it.  The windows got washed, the curtains, everything all scrubbed and clean before Winter and the holidays.

Well, I got lost going down memory lane there, but anyway, I'm going to start with the Fall cleaning soon.  I hate to start it when it's so muggy and hot.  Once it starts to cool, I am ready.

Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

I searched for a carpet beater picture and found this.  I'm glad the vacuum was invented!

End of Something Else

Another large company is going out of business.  It was announced this week that Sears is closing their stores.  I admit it has been quite a while since I have shopped at Sears.  The one in our area is at what used to be called the Newmarket North Mall.  That was also the mall where we used to go rent movies many years ago.  They had VHS tapes and Beta.  But that is another topic and those are long gone, too.

All the stores are closed now and the buildings are being used for other things.  I think Sears might be the last store there.  I just read that they had closed off the second floor already and are shutting things down.

Which brings me to some memories.  As a child it was always a big deal when the Sears catalog arrived.  I loved looking through it.  In addition to Sears, J.C. Penney's always had a special Christmas catalog.. What fun to sit and look and wish!

Our girls continued that tradition.  I remember when Mom would make a Fall visit to us wherever we were living she would sit with the girls and look at the catalogs.  She'd tell them they could pick one thing each up to a certain dollar amount.  Sometimes that took hours or days for the decisions to be made.  I don't remember any of the things they picked, but I do remember what fun they had.

Now, no more catalogs.  We just search online.  It just isn't the same.

RIP, Sears.

But life is still great.  Stay safe, and God Bless America!

Fall Memories

Since it has gotten cooler and feeling more like Fall, I just have to post a favorite picture.  This is our sweet Cinder watching the pretty leaves blow across the patio years ago.  We miss her.

Disregard the date.  Picture was taken with an older camera that had calendar issues.  But it was correct on the year.

Here are Angus and Finnigan - same window.  They like looking out this door, too.  Maybe they remember Cinder.

Life is great!  Hug your furry kids!

Updates

Les and I did get out to work in the yard on Friday.  The huge tree limb was from our neighbor's tree and we have no idea how it got into our yard.  But Les got it cut up and hauled out to the curb for the next bulk pick-up.  I got all the mulched areas cleaned up and pulled all the branches and limbs out of shrubs and flowers where they had blown in.  We picked up bags of "bits", branches, small limbs, etc. from the yard.  Les raked part of it and said the rest of the leaves he will get when he mows next time.  So, right now, our yard is looking better.

As far as everywhere else, the news reports say there were several tornadoes that touched down and did damage, some flooding in some areas closer to the water, many, many trees down, and power outages.  Some areas are still out.

I went to the Commissary yesterday morning and clean-up was being done everywhere along the way and work being done on the power lines.  Not as many people shopping as there usually are on Saturday mornings and it was a short trip.

Today was omelette day and I cooked breakfast, we watched a movie and read the paper.  I just finished grooming and nail clipping the furry boys.  That was followed by vacuuming. 

It has cooled off here and is only 64, and humidity in the 50% range.  I have the A/C off and a couple windows open.

Les played golf yesterday and said the course looked pretty good, no damage.

I haven't talked to either of the girls so I am assuming all is well.  😊 

Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Calm This Morning

TS Michael came through our area last night.  The wind was really strong and at times the rain was heavy.  Have no idea how much we actually got.  I am sure the rain gauge is not accurate because the wind was blowing so hard.  I think it was done here around 3:00 a.m.  This morning is sunny and breezy, temp was only around 60 when we got up.  A cold front came from the other direction so we had two things going on in our area.  We did not lose power, but the generator was ready.  We did lose WiFi for the evening.  Have no idea what was going on with that.  We got notices from Verizon after Les checked on it.  

Jacquie said they were okay and did not lose power either but they had not been outside to look at things yet.  No school today.  

There was flooding in some areas and we had a tornado watch all day.  In some areas there were sightings, but not near us.  Les and I  have a LOT of clean-up to do in the yard.  There are limbs, branches, and "stuff" down all over the yard front and back.  There's a huge limb down in the backyard but we have not been out to see if it is from our tree or the neighbor's.    We're letting things dry out a little before we go out.  

Life is good.  Stay safe and keep good thoughts and prayers for all those that were in the direct path of the storm.  God Bless America!

Just Waiting

It is currently 79 degrees here and 86% humidity with a tornado watch going on.  "Michael" is heading up to our area and is supposed to bring some heavy wind and heavy rain later today.  It has already done massive destruction to Florida and Georgia.  It won't be nearly as strong by the time it gets to us.  Pam says they are okay but Fred, the dog, was nervous for a while.

I had a second visit with the root canal specialist yesterday for more work on the same tooth.  I was apologized to a couple times about having to come back and also thanked for being a good patient.  But the work is done now and in two weeks I go back to our regular dentist for the permanent repair on that tooth.  My mouth is tender but manageable.

I took it easy yesterday and today have been doing the usual stuff and taking care of some things.

We like our new phones and have the old ones all packed up and ready to drop off at FedEx for the trade in.

The yard work and clean up is done for the moment.  Looks better out there.  It's time to do the windows again, but am waiting for a nice sunny, cooler day for that job.

Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

p.s.  I don't know if this guy was wishing to get inside or just being nosy.  😊

But he  hung out there on the back door for a long time!

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is well and happy! 

This morning was an "omelette day" here.  So I made one for Les and I had scrambled.  The kitchen is all cleaned up now.  Les plans to do yard work and then later today we have a couple errands to do.

I tried the camera on my new phone.  Pretty good!

More and more people are putting out pumpkins and decorating for Halloween.  I have not gotten any pumpkins yet.  Usually I get a couple smaller ones and set around in the mulched areas.  More often than not they either rot from the heat and humidity or the wildlife chews on them.  I gave up years ago on having Indian corn as a decoration.  It would get dragged all over the yard and eaten.  But I do love Nature!

Nothing else from here.  Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Time Ran Away!

Hey, all!

Here is how time has flown by the last week. 

My eye recovered nicely from the laser procedure and my sight is improved.  I haven't been having as many headaches.  So, yay!

We had dinner one evening with friends.  It was very nice and we all agreed to go out more often.  Trying a new place next time!

Then in the midst of getting ready for Pam's visit, I had emergency root canal work done.  Both of the dentists - our regular and the root canal specialist - say I had severely inflamed dying roots in a molar that had already had a crown on it.  So that was just great.  And then I got a call saying the specialist had been looking at my x-rays and records and decided there was more he could do and I go back this Wednesday for more work.  Not thrilled, but better to get it all done before the permanent repairs on the crown.  The good news is that the pain in my upper and lower left teeth, jaw, ear, eye socket, and face is much better!  Mouth is still tender though.

Pam got here and it was great to see her and get to visit a bit.  Jacquie and Jordan came over Friday evening and we had a nice dinner.  Chris stayed home with the little ones because they had been having congestion and coughing and Jacquie wasn't spreading germs.

Saturday Pam was out bright and early for the Virginia Beach Quilt Show where she had a beautiful quilt entered.  She was also doing some promo work for "The Stitch" and meeting with a potential sponsor.  Les and I went down there in the afternoon to see her.  She did not win this time, but her quilt is beautiful.  Notice "The Stitch" tee shirt. :)

Jacquie, Jordan and I went to the neighborhood community yard sales on Saturday, too.  I don't think quite as many participated this time but we found a few good bargains.

After Les and I took Pam to the airport on Sunday we went to Lowe's and looked at the Christmas trees they were setting up.  We need to buy one this year.  Will go back soon, after they have them all up and priced.  Then we went to Best Buy and got new phones!  Also Christmas related because they are early Christmas gifts we are giving to each other.  We've been busy getting them all set up.  So far, so good.

So today I spent some time catching up on odds and ends and chores that needed doing.  I just got home from the "Y".    The pool felt good!

I did a little yard clean-up this morning and desk stuff, too.  As always, life is great!

Stay safe and God Bless America!

Happy Columbus Day!

I think Columbus gets sort of pushed out for recognition, but have a happy day!

More later.  Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Some Random Thoughts

Things I am tired of:

People who are so opinionated that they won't even consider listening to others.

People who are so self-centered and feel so entitled that they they never think of others or realize how rude they are being.

People who don't want to work and expect everything to be done for them and given to them.

People who never acknowledge a gift or kindness or say "thank you".

Traffic

And on a lighter note, the onslaught of Pumpkin Spice everywhere this time of year!



Things I am grateful for:

Les, my loving husband

Family

Cats, and all the rest of God's wonderful creatures; except maybe the mosquitoes and ticks.  I could do without those.

All the beauty in our world - God did a really great job and we should all be grateful and appreciate it.  Take time to look around once in a while, people!

This is just some of the beauty I mentioned.  Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Ahhhh!

The laser procedure went well and I consider it a success!  I now have even vision in my eyes and will not have to get glasses again.  So, yay!  Things were pretty fuzzy and blurry yesterday while the dilation and pain drugs they put in my eye wore off, but by evening it was much better.

It's day two of October, we are into Fall.  Pumpkin patches have opened and little kids are picking out pumpkins bigger than they can carry.  The temperature is heading to upper 80's and we have 77% humidity.  Therefore, there are no nice Fall breezes coming in open windows.  Those are closed and the A/C is still running.  However, Angus thinks it is really Fall and is napping under the quilt.  Notice the lump on the bed in this picture.  😊

Life is great!  Stay safe and God Bless America!

Happy October!

There was just a hint of cool Fall weather in the air this morning, but in a day or so we will be back into the 90's here.  Fall weather is coming sometime!

My laser eye procedure went okay this morning and hopefully has fixed the problems.  Right now my fully dilated left eye is recovering and I am starting to be able to see out of it again!

And that is the news for today.  Life is good!  Stay safe and God Bless America!