cairistiona's place

For someone who doesn't really do Halloween, I seem be be posting a lot about it, but this is one I definitely meant to share:


Isn't he cute??? My sister gave him to me. He's attached to a metal panel that slides between books. There are some of these little lights out there that are an old-fashioned street lamp, but I love my little bookworm ghost friend. 

In other news, November 1 always seems to bring in a sudden change in weather, going from summer on Halloween to full-on fall on November 1. This year the transition wasn't quite as drastic because the trees are all very late in turning, so there's still a lot of green. But we did finally get a little bit of rain and mist, bringing me the misty, cool fall morning I've been craving. Sadly, it came on the day we do the grocery shopping, so I couldn't stay curled up in a cozy chair reading a book like I wanted to. Life rarely proceeds perfectly.

Hubby has pulled all the summer annuals and put the pots in the shed, save for the big Boston fern that doesn't require much watering. (I had a bad cold in the middle of October and didn't feel like watering plants, so they all went to seed save the fern). Thanks to felling all those trees, we have firewood aplenty and plan on more evenings by the fire in the firepit patio. Fall may be arriving late here this year, but it does seem to finally be tiptoeing in.

In our never-ending parade of professional tradespeople lately, today we will be visited by a person from our Internet provider, as it's been out since Thursday afternoon. They will check to see if the problem is the connection box that ties the outside cable to the inside router, or if it's a break in the buried cable somewhere, maybe due to all the heavy equipment driving up and down the yard. We're using our mobile phone hotspots, which work okay for most things but aren't quite fast enough to show sports without pixillating at odd, usually crucial moments. :P It's not quite as bad as dial-up. but we are definitely spoiled by having high-speed internet these days.

Happy Monday, all. 

About half of my icons show the broken link symbol when I try to use them in a reply, and when I look at my list, all that shows instead of the actual image is a text description. 

Anyone else having this problem? I wonder if it's a known issue or if I should open a ticket if they don't show up in a day or so.

... *trying to think of something interesting to post*...

Well, screw it, nothing interesting is happening because we're all huddled in our homes waiting for a thaw. XD I was supposed to get my hair done yesterday, but my stylist's kids' school was closed due to extreme cold (small, rural district means old buildings that don't heat well). I'll be going Monday morning instead. She told me she hadn't left the house since the big snowstorms, so we're living identical lives. LOL 

Dink came over--or I should say we drove into the city to pick her up, to save her the gas money; our electric car isn't as efficient in severe cold weather, but it's still pennies on the dollar compared to gasoline. We had a nice Friday evening chatting and watching television and laughing at Boom's silly antics.

This morning the temp was 1F with a windchill of about -15F when we got up, so hubby chivalrously took Boom out for me. Since hubby has retired, we take turns taking Boom outside, but when the weather is this cold, it does no favors for my rosacea and hubby steps in (or out, as the case may be). One of the perks of having him home 24/7!

We're getting used to retired life pretty easily. I was afraid I'd miss my quiet alone time, but he's off to the basement for his workout or out in the garage doing whatever needs done and things of the sort enough that I've had plenty of "me" time. I'm also getting used to the idea that I can do my own things--including not really talking much in the mornings--and it's still fine. I don't have to be attentive to him 24/7. Whew. LOL We've yet to experience to more fun part of retirement--the freedom to just pick up and go do something in the middle of the week--because the weather has been so atrocious. That will come with fairer weather, though. He's reveling in not having to slog into work on icy roads.

Okay, I've dredged out every possible half-way interesting tidbit of life. Tell me what you're up to this weekend.

Happy Saturday, all.



 

Sunday...


And today. He has mooostaches...


Happy Monday, all.

The air is finally turning cooler, and there's a definite change in the weather pattern--we're getting rain about every week, which is much needed. I wish the rain wasn't hitting on the weekend every time, but beggars can't be choosers.

The native wild flowers are all but finished, save for a few white asters here and there and some chicory:



Bees, butterflies, and most everything except grasshoppers and crickets have all gone to wherever they go in the winter. On our trip to Kansas City, I saw a couple of monarchs, but not a single one here this year. We also saw a bald eagle on that trip, which is always a treat.

Hubby gets up at 4 am every day these days, because he likes to get to work early when no one is there to distract him, but man, it's wrecking my sleep. We're both going to bed around 8:30, but it always takes me about an hour of reading to really get relaxed enough to sleep, plus I get woken up several times during the night by Pip coming and going (and closing the door on her would NOT work--she would just sit on the other side and yell all night). I think I've reached that age where I'm not old enough to only need six hours of sleep but too old to be able to function on only six hours of sleep. Oh to be young again, right? LOL Sleeplessness and asthma/allergies are combining to remind me that I am no Energizer bunny. :P I expect I'll be taking a nap this afternoon.

Happy Thursday, all.

It's here! My new-to-me recumbent exercise bike:

I have christened it Roheryn (disregarding the fact that it's black and probably should be named something Nazgul-ish, but that would hardly be incentive to love riding it).

It was a lovely trip, marred only by a heavy storm on the way home. We had Roheryn covered with two tarps, though, so the electronics stayed dry even if it did get splashed a bit around the bottom where the tarp didn't quite cover. I've ridden it for about ten minutes, as hubby was setting up the Roku on the television, and it rides like a dream. I'm very happy with it and looking forward to using it regularly.

The people we bought it from were lovely, about the same age as hubby and me. He explained how the bike had helped him recover after double hip replacements and consequently given him the cycling bug--he now has four other bicycles, including a recumbent, and had, in fact, finished a 36-mile race that morning. She showed me her charming little garden and sweet old dog while she talked about splitting time between their little Illinois house and a house they own in Mexico. He also showed us his classic Corvette. (To say they were in quite a different income bracket that we are is an understatement! XD But they weren't braggy about it.) They were leaving for France Sunday to watch the mountain stages and then the Paris finale of the Tour. She said she'll be wearing the dotted King of the Mountain jersey while he'll be in a lion costume, so I suppose I'll be scouring the sidelines hoping to spot them! LOL They were the kind of folks you could talk with all day, but we had a long trip back and he was tired from his race, so we loaded up Roheryn and headed home. 

My visit with my sister was fun--she met us at a White Castle that was on our way there. She'll be coming down at the end of the month to see the Fantastic Four movie with us, so lots of visiting time with her this month.

Some pics along the road:

Illinois is very flat and very filled with corn fields:


Once you're out of the St. Louis area, it transitions very quickly to rural farms. There's really not much in the way of suburbs on the east side, probably because East St. Louis is a dying city known mostly for it's decay and high crime. A shame, really, because as you drive past on the Interstate, you can see how glorious the city once was, so much lovely architecture. But most of the buildings are abandoned now, or most of the ones you see from the highway. It always makes me very sad to drive through there.

Dotting all the farm fields are small towns, all with similar main streets:


As a kid, I'd stay with my grandma in southern Illinois, about a hundred miles south of where we were heading that day, but the town she lived near--and where my dad grew up--looked almost identical. I remember walking along and shopping for a new dress every summer at the local dress shop, and then we'd stop at the IGA for groceries and a new comic book. :) This trip for the bike stirred up a lot of good memories! I really like Illinois and its whole vibe. 

Between the corn fields and the small towns are stretches of woods:

I don't know about this stretch, but there was a similar stretch on the way to Grandma's that went through a creek bottom area, and of course it was haunted. *g* A headless horseman, if I recall correctly. We drove through that stretch--called Bogey Creek, between Coulterville and Swanwick--soooo many times, often at night, but I never saw a ghost, headless, horsed, or otherwise.

This week will be much quieter than last week and weekend. Boomer goes to the groomer on Wednesday, and I have an appointment for a breast ultrasound on Thursday, and that's all that's on the calendar. My kind of week!

Happy Monday, all.

It seems very quiet in my corner of DW land, which fits how quiet life is around here this weekend. Yesterday we took the cardboard and paper recyclables to the center, picked up lunch to take home, and spent the rest of the day parked in front of the TV, because it was still rather raw and cold outside, which made it feel chilly around the edges inside. We're definitely following Boom's example of aggressive laziness this weekend.

"As well you should, Mommy."


Today is grocery shopping, then more TV watching, and, perhaps if it gets as warm as the forecast promises, some wandering around in the yard to see if there's any signs of spring other than daffodil leaves, which always start poking up in January (and sometimes December). When I stepped outside with Boom this morning, there was a distinct scent of skunk wafting through the air. That's a harbinger of spring that no one really celebrates. :P

My face is looking and, more importantly, feeling a bit more normal now. The infection seems to have cleared, but it's still a little itchy and red in places. I plan to use the steroid cream for a couple more days, then wean off of it and see what happens. I'll get the single stitch removed on Wednesday, which will be nice. It's been adding a bit to the itching. Thankfully no sign of infection there, either.

I guess today is Groundhog Day. Such a weird and silly custom, honestly, but I suppose we're all so sick of winter by this point that we're desperate for any sign of spring, enough to yank a poor hibernating groundhog from its den to make it see if it's sunny or cloudy. Humanity is a puzzle sometimes. Most times.

Happy Sunday, all.

Doctor's appointment yesterday went well, no huge issues that I could see on the bloodwork report, other than the usual uptick in markers caused by the bit of weight gain over the last year. I think losing the weight again will help all that, so I'm not expecting any sort of urgent call to come back to the office for further review. He's ordered the "mail-in-your-poop" test for me, as it's been a few years since I last did that. Oh yay.

Onto more interesting things.

Poor Boom was licking his paws and scratching a lot yesterday. He's on an anti-flea/tick topical regimen, but I suspected he stepped in a nest of baby ticks. I put him atop the dryer and gave him a good going over and brushed out hundreds of the things, all dead, thankfully. Even though they died quickly, they still had to bite him to be killed, and that leaves little itchy welts. I was thinking I needed to run to the store for some Benedryl, but the brushing seemed to have helped enough that he stopped all the licking. He's much better today, thank goodness. I'm also thankful it was the tiniest of ticks, as small as a period on your screen. Boom was likely their first meal, so chances are good they weren't carrying any disease. Small favors. I would not be heartbroken if ticks became extinct.

Far better than ticks are great spangled fritillaries. I caught one (with the camera, not with a net!) on the butterfly weed (which is blooming late because deer nipped it twice just before it bloomed; it's only just now getting decent blooms on):


They're also striking with wings closed:


I caught a bumblebee sleeping on a zinnia blossom the other morning:

(You have to look a bit close.)

Dink and I had a discussion about whether insects dream. We came to no conclusions other than we hoped so. (This on the tail of me telling her I dreamt an ocelet and her kittens sneaked in through the cat door to make a nest in my bedroom!)

I still haven't seen any Monarch caterpillars save the one a few months ago. The zinnias still look nice, but the garden overall is in one of the shabby periods that native gardens (and fields in the wild) get before the wave of fall blossoms. In a week or two, I'll have goldenrod, boneset, and asters blooming, to add to the zinnias, lobelia, and blue sage.

It's also time to think about what additional plants to order for the fall native plant sale. I think I'll just get a few more coneflowers and maybe a spicebush. I'd love to find some Joe Pye weed, which I've read is another excellent native pollinator plant that blooms in late summer/fall. My preferred nursery is out of stock, though, but there's usually a few other nurseries at the plant sale that may have some. *fingers crossed*

Latest on the goings-on across the road: they installed some sort of heavy duty post, probably for a gate, using some sort of automated pile driver thing that I think shook the entire hillside. >.< Fortunately it was only for a few minutes, but it was an exceedingly loud few minutes.

Happy Wednesday, all.

Swiped from claudia603 

Ask meme for people in their 30s... or as I would say, people who are 30 and up, because there's really not a lot of change in life w/r/t this particular set of questions.

( Read more... )

Advent Lego dump:


Wouldn't you know it, I'm catching a cold. *scowls* I'm not really surprised. We were with so many people in such tight quarters, and then getting exhausted and vulnerable to catching something. As annoying as it will be trying to get presents wrapped and the house clean and laundry done with a dripping nose, I'm glad I should be over it by Christmas itself. *fingers crossed no one else gets sick*

Happy Wednesday, all.