In October, we get a lot of rain around here so a morning in which the sun comes streaming through the front window is a thing to be glad of.  I took today off just because I could and this is what greeted me when I came downstairs this morning.  If that's not an invitation, I don't know what is.  I had some breakfast and then spent the greater part of the morning spinning some cloud soft alpaca.  There is a skein hanging out front in the wind to dry.

It's windy here today.  I like to watch wind but it makes me nervous.  I don't know whether it's something weird and subconscious or it's because the doors all over the house keep slamming from the wind blowing in through the open windows.  Pk is at the doctor getting his ears cleaned out (wax).  When he gets back, I am thinking of going to a lys that's having another going out of business sale.  Everything under 10$ is a dollar a ball and everything else is 80 percent off.  The sale starts today and goes till Saturday so this is my chance to find a bargain.  I hate going out of business sales, especially yarn stores.  This one has been closed for a while and I think she's probably just trying to get rid of the end of the inventory. 

Other than that, it's a quiet day.  I'm enjoying a day with no expectations other than a dinner to prepare.  I haven't been sleeping well and I'm tired but I'm trying not to nap.  I want to go to bed and sleep all the night through.  And not having a train blow it's whistle at 1 AM right outside my window would help!

I apologize for this but I'm worn out beat.  The last two days at work have been rough and I just don't have it in me to think of anything worth reading.  On the other hand, I wasn't really surprised at the results of this quiz.  As I was answering the questions, I could see where it was leading......

You Are Candy Corn

Your Halloween personality is whimsical, colorful, and creative. You see Halloween as a time to get your creative juices flowing. Each year, Halloween can't start soon enough for you. You tend to go all out for Halloween. You decorate like crazy and always dress up.

What Halloween Treat Are You?

Hallowe'en has always been a favorite holiday of mine.  When I was a kid, adults didn't celebrate it too much but now they seem to go all out.  I used to love making costumes for the kids and I've made some for Pk and myself, too.  One of our best was Little Bo Peep and her sheep.  Pk looked so cute in his sheep costume (I cut a shirt and pants out of a white sheet and glued cotton batting to it, he wore black mittens and shoes).  We won a prize that year. 

Now that the girls are older, they come up with their own costumes and I haven't made one in a few years.  I have a pair of 4 foot fairy wings that I like to wear with street clothes.  They're just fun.   I may wear them when I give out candy (along with some glittery make up and maybe I'll get some fairy ears this year, hmmmm).  I have orange lights outside the house and pumpkins are everywhere inside.  It's time to go to the farm and get some "live" pumpkins to carve (and some really good pies, too!).  We haven't had a lot of trick or treaters in our neighborhood and we always have a lot of leftover candy.  That's a tragedy, that is. 

What's Hallowe'en like in your neighborhood?

Four pieces of wood, each over 7 feet long, are sitting in my driveway.  Yesterday morning Jim and Pk went to bring the tree home.  They discovered they couldn't pick it up even after it was cut in half.  So they cut it in quarters and were able to get it into the truck.  You should have felt the vibrations as those pieces of wood hit the ground. 

You can see the board he cut out of one quarter. Kate is holding the measuring tape.  It has to dry out some before it can be cut and shaped.  If you look really close, you can see the spinning wheel there in the wood.  Pk spent all day Sunday cutting out the useable portions of wood.  The left over sections that won't be good for making anything will be offered to our neighbors who have smokers.  We figure they might like some hickory for when the start smoking meat next summer.  And then they can continue to drive us crazy with all the good smells first thing on Saturday morning. 

Today was a "hit the ground running" kind of day.  The phone was ringing and there were people who needed things all day.  I am thinking it's the full moon we had last night.  When I was in college, I worked in our peer counseling center (named the Drop In Center), a 24 hour/7 day a week place where people could get information or just talk.  We kept a log book of all the calls and the nights the moon was full had more calls.  No one wanted to do those overnights!  It's the place I learned to come awake quickly because when the phone rang, you had to answer it and sound awake.  I loved volunteering there and it's probably responsible for me being in the line of work I'm in now.

So, I think I'm the last person in the world not on Facebook.  Pk informed me that today he signed up.  When I asked why?  He said "to keep up with the kids".  What happened to phone calls?  Or emails?  I feel the shadow of the Facebook creeping up on me.  I have no real desire to join but I'm feeling the pressure. 

Today's happy things.  Looking out my window at work and seeing a flawless blue sky.  It looked like it went on forever.  Seeing an old friend at the train station.  Listening to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  This has become one of my new favorite books.  I'd been waiting to get it at the online library and I'm so glad I was persistent.  If you've got the chance, read it.  Or better yet, listen to it.  The wonderful voices and accents just blew me away.  What a terrific story.

Well, I'm off to find my recipe for Sloppy Joes.  Then it's knitting and then bed.  Since it gets dark earlier and earlier, I feel like going to bed earlier and earlier.  Some nights, it's a struggle to make it to 10!  And Daylight Savings Time doesn't start her for another month. 

I hope you are all having (or had) a good Monday.  See you tomorrow.

One of the things that I like about Saturdays is that I get to get up when I want to, not when the clock that sits next to my head on the bookshelf says I have to.  Well, most Saturdays.  Yesterday, Calvin and Hobbes made their presence well known by deciding to give themselves loud, lip smacking baths right on my bed as I was trying to enjoy what was left of a dream that I can't remember but I know was a good one.  I don't know what it is about male cats and licking themselves (Pk says they do it because they can) but my female cats never made this much noise!

Since I was awake (thanks guys) I decided to go to an estate sale with Pk.  It was in our neighborhood and their ad said "nothing over 20 dollars".   The house was tiny.  One small living/dining room and a tiny bedroom and miniscule kitchen.  Nothing much interesting but I did buy a gravy boat (we are forever breaking ours) and this.  For 5$ I got a Sunbeam bread machine.  Now, I have a bread machine that I love but it hasn't been working well so I jumped at the chance to buy a rather new looking one for only 5 dollars.  I asked the guy if it worked and he said "yep, my mother used it all the time" (What was he going to say,"no, it's a worthless piece of crap")? 

I brought it home and washed the pan and prepared to try it out.  In went warm water, butter, salt, yeast, flour and an egg.  I set the type of bread and pushed the button and .....Nothing.  Some noise but nothing.  It was making sounds just like our old breadmaker.  That seemed odd to me and I asked Pk to look at it.  He took it away and was back in about 15 minutes to tell me that a belt had come off and viola!  It works!  He then looked at the other one and what do you know?  The belt had come off of that one too.  (seems to be an epidemic).   He fixed them both and I gave Kate the one I just bought to put in her "box of stuff for moving out".  I took the flour mixture and kneaded it up by hand and baked it and now we have a nice loaf of bread for toast for breakfast.  Kate tried out her new machine by making some chocolate chip banana bread.  It was a yeast bread and not a quick bread so the texture was different, but still mighty tasty. 

Kate and I spent the afternoon putting up the "orange stuff" as she calls it.  It's the decorations for Fall.  We found this lighted pumpkin lantern at the dollar store.  Isn't he cute?  We put up lights on the outside of the front window (orange) and our favorite bits and bobs.  I love the splashes of color.

And speaking of splashes of color, the FedEx man brought me a package that had this lovely turquoise yarn in it.  It's from the ever wonderful Roxie.  She sent me a hug and with it this skein of Silkie Socks That Rock.  It feels so nice.......And look, it's posing on some autumn colored sparklies. 

It was a good day.  I spun up another alpaca skein for Pk's sweater.  He rubs it against his face and smiles.  That makes me happy.  And friends from far away sending warm wishes (and soft yarn!) makes me happy, too. And I have a whole day to spend how I wish.  Happiness all round.

Good morning! 

Things that make me happy, part 3.

Having an impromptu date with my husband.

Flirty emails from said husband received at work.

Being told I'm the prettiest woman in the room.

We had no plans to go out last night after work.  But, then, Borders sent me 5 dollars in Borders Rewards for using my Borders card and of course I had to use them.  I emailed Pk and asked him if he wanted to go out and we decided to have a date.    We chose our local Mexican restaurant where some delicious shrimp fajitas were consumed along with handmade tortillas. Then we went to Borders where I perused the latest knitting magazines (none I wanted to buy) and Pk checked out the woodworking magazines.  We bought a new comic book to add to our collection.  We love comic books!  We own many and are always on the look out for new ones.  I did some knitting on a plain sock made out of some very colorful opal yarn.  It was a nice way to spend a Friday night after a long week.

I asked Peter Kevin for a photo of his tree and here it is.  This is the tree with the wedges inserted to help split it down it's length.  It split almost all the way through.  There are a few inches on the bottom that need to be chainsawed.  We had to get some tow straps to roll it over so he can cut the rest of the way through the trunk.  You can see the little bit at the bottom of the photo on the right that still has to be cut.  Hickory is heavy wood.  This is too heavy for my car so Big Jim is bringing a pickup truck to help haul it back.  Pk is going to see if there is a mill near that will cut it into boards for him and if it's not too expensive, we'll take it there.  That way he won't waste too much wood trying to cut it with his tools.  I can't wait to see the wood inside the tree.  I'll take a photo on Sunday when they finish the cutting. 

And now it's time to get to the clothes washing.  All those winter clothes need to be washed and folded and put away.  The summer clothes need to be sorted and folded and put into the boxes.  This will take most of the day.

I hope you're finding some fun to have today.

Things that make me happy, Part 2.

It's Friday.  I have resolved not to just dismiss Monday through Thursday (they are all worthy days and deserving of some joy) but Friday always holds a special place in my heart. 

A daughter who says that I make her happy.

Waking up and not having a headache and stiff joints from the flu shot I had to get. (Wed and Thurs I felt crappy and I'm blaming it on the injection)

I'm continually amazed at the number of people who pull out their electronic devices on the train in the morning.  They are checking email and some are doing work before they get to work.  I know this because their screens don't have any protection on them and I can read their work.  What I don't understand is WHY?  It's a 30 minute train ride from end to end. Why spend it working?  I use the time to adjust myself mentally to face the work day and in the afternoon I use it to let go of the work day and relax before I get home.  I don't want to feel like I'm at work before I even walk through the building.  And unless the train is really crowded, it's a half hour of knitting time in the afternoon.  (In the morning knitting is impossible because it takes two hands and Pk has hold of one of them.  No sacrifice there.  Hold my husband's hand or some metal needles?  No contest.)

We have a quiet weekend planned.  I need to get down the winter clothes and put away the white cotton skirts and short sleeved shirts that I love to wear in the summer.  It means a whole day of laundry.  I like the way the closets look, all straightened and neat but I hate spending a whole day doing it.  And I want to get out the fall decorations for the house.  There are ceramic ghosts and pumpkins that I look forward to seeing come out of storage.  Pk is going to spend some time working on his tree.

Did I tell you about his tree?  One of my brother's neighbors had a large hickory tree blow down in a storm.  When Pk saw it, he went to the man and offered to cut parts of it up for firewood if he could have the trunk.  The man agreed and Pk set to work.  He ended up with a 6 foot length of trunk that's about 24 inches across.  It's huge, almost 800 pounds of wood.  He's so excited because it will make a top for a work bench he's been wanting to make for a while.  And he keeps hinting that there's enough wood to make a spinning wheel for me.  Hopefully, he and Jim's dad, Big Jim, will be able to cut it into manageable sections and transport it to our house.  The the fun begins. 

I'd like to spend the weekend spinning some alpaca for Pk's sweater.  I swatched it and it's soft and beautiful.  It's going to be gorgeous.

Have a good Friday.  I'll see you tomorrow!

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.


~The Buddha

Happy October!  It feels like fall here in South Jersey this morning.  We had an overnight low of 48 (8.8 C) and it's only supposed to be in the 60's today.  Just what you'd expect for fall.  Often, it stays hot well into October but this year nature seems determined to stay on schedule.

I made a quasi-promise to myself back in January that I was going to focus on positive things and to encourage positive things in my life.  I have tried to keep that promise but often fall short.  Especially with all of the negative things at work.  I listen to people complain day after day and it wears me down until I 'm doing the same thing.  Once in a while I get up the gumption to say "wait, I'm doing ok, it's not all bad" but more often I just make agreeing noises and let it go. 

Today's Buddhist inspiration reminded me that I am in charge of the tone of my thoughts.  If I want happiness and goodness to be around me, I have to put it there.  It's a timely thought. I have been kind of down and sad (understandably) but I want to climb out of that hole and stand in the happy sunlight again.  So, i am thinking of one or two things that make me happy.  Just one or two, although in reality there are many.  Maybe  during Blogtoberfest, I'll take some time to recognize the good things in my life each day.  For today,  I am happy that  Em has recovered most of herself back (It brought tears to my eyes when I watched her run up a flight of steps.  I am so very grateful she's ok).  I am happy that I work with compassionate, caring people (I'm looking at some beautiful fall flowers someone gave me yesterday).  I'm happy I have a job that allows me to fulfill my need to help.  Three things to smile about today.

What makes you smile?