...trees on fire

the bank parking lot across the street is aflame...

the recent cooler temps have lit similar fires all around Mudville...

I love fall...

...grace under pressure

I must be on the right path...
because the enemy is really trying to trip me up...

focusing my attention away from the extreme calm I've been feeling...
letting little annoyances and physical pain, that I have no real control over...
get to me, cause me to lose my temper...
and destroy my sense of peace...

or maybe I'm just being taught to be "calm"...
no matter how I feel or what happens...
and how to find that calm again when it seems to have slipped away...
or has just plain vanished due to my anger or lousy attitude...
by concentrating on trusting in Him & His plans for me...

because, God is Good... all the time...

...another nice surprise

my only tomato plant has produced golf ball size fruit all summer...
[I'm planning to use some in a salad tonight...]
it sits on my front walk, in full sun...
next to the lemon tree...

and as you can see, early November finds it...
apparently on it's "last legs"...
what with the mini heat spell that crisped it...
and the passing "cool" snap & rains that pelted it...

the remaining green fruit has been scarred by wind-blown debris...
and one small fruit has rot on it...
here in the best sun, I may be able to let the rest vine ripen...
unless there's a hard frost...
in which case I may try moving the entire plant, indoors...
quite a different concept for me...
but this variety is intended to be a "counter-top" plant...

I just have to find the right light for it...

the fact that I'm considering moving it inside...
is motivated by not only by my curiosity to see if I can keep it alive...
but by the fact that it seems to want to keep producing fruit...

there are new leaves sprouting...

also blossom buds have re-appeared...
these are closed tightly...

but these have opened...

and every tomato grower knows that it takes warm nights to set fruit...
which are non-existent now, outside...
but could be "simulated" inside...

it's a mystery to me that this blossom seems to have set a fruit...
despite all odds being against its doing so...
so I think that I'll go find a sunny spot in my LR window for it...
and see what happens...

...our tax dollars at work [?]

I have voted by mail for years...

when I taught, it was just simpler...
no obscure garage/polling places to find in the dark...
no rushing to fit voting in between school & rehearsals...
no forgetting, then feeling bad...

so when I got the letter from the SJ County election office in September...
the one detailing how my precinct no longer had enough registered voters...
who actually came to the polling place to vote...
and that consequently, we would all have to vote by mail this year...

it made no difference to me...

when the ballot arrived, I sifted past the usual enclosures...
to get to what I had to actually fill-out...

there was this card, next to the envelope...

which I'd seen many times before...
and had even read a few times...

I turned it over & glanced at the back side...
but as I was about to toss it...
something caught my eye...

a bureaucrat with a sense of humor...
who would have thought it possible...

BTW: I would happily vote for any or all of the above...
before just about any professional politician...

[nota bene] if you aren't old enough to know about Mortimer Snerd...
he was the idiot foil to Charley MacCarthys' wise guy...
they were both "dummies" used by ventriloquist Edgar Bergan...
[Candice's father...] in his 1940's/'50's radio/TV act...

Bullwinkle J. Moose was "pulling rabbits out of his hat..."
to amuse Rocky[Rocket J. Squirrel]...
and confound Boris & Natasha [cartoon spies...]
on the "Rocky & Bullwinkle Show" of my youth...
[that would be the 1950's/early '60's]

if you are not quite as old as dirt [or me...]
you may remember Lily Tomlin's character, "Geraldine"...
the telephone operator with attitude on "Laugh-In" from the '60's...
and her signature,"...one ringy-dingy..."

if you don't know who[or what] Sponge Bob is...
you had to have someone else turn on your computer...
and find this blog...

...ooo, a severe weather alert !!!

my daily weather check on my pda revealed this startling news Friday...
there is a "severe weather watch" in effect through the weekend...
as several fronts, which will grow in strength, make it through our area...

I'm NOT building an ark...
or collecting canned goods anytime soon...

these warnings always lead us to believe that Mother Nature...
is pissed... and about to exact deadly vengeance on us all...

that there will be "walls of water"...
[maybe .75 of an inch in our area !!!]
and that we needed to know this severe weather was on the way...
so we could be prepared...

well, they've "cried wolf" too often...

in the first place, .75 inches of rain is NOT severe weather...
unless you have NO shelter and are allergic to rain...
and in the second place, most of the time these, "warnings" amount to nothing...
going north or south of us...
or just plain, fizzling out without producing much rain at all...

I lived in Chicagoland for 5 years[1973-8]...

they had REAL severe weather alerts...
not to mention REAL severe weather...
the kind that you HAD to respect...

tornadoes... thunderstorms... downpours...
4 inches of rain in an hour...

and BLIZZARDS... real white-outs...
26 inches of snow... in 24 hours...
[on May 2...]

not to mention the 2 weeks in January when it was -20˚F...
all day... for at least 10 days...
each year of the 5 that I lived there...

then came the "January thaw"...
when the temp finally got up to zero...
& people took off their heavy coats...
at 25˚, they wore shorts...

oh, it was often "raw" into May...
sleet, howling winds & "sideways" rain...
but never again, -20˚ F after the January thaw...

so don't tease me with your lame NorCal "severe weather alerts"...

I'm NOT buying it...

now a "severe foot watch"...

that would get my attention...

...better than the alternative

well that day is here again, sigh...
not that I'm really complaining...
because having another birthday is always better...
than NOT having one...

it's just that I'm increasingly aware of "milestones"...

when I was a kid, there were always milestones to reach...
and you "couldn't wait"...

to be 10, 13, 16, 18, 21...
and to receive the privileges that being 16[whatever] afforded...

and there are the "big" birthdays...
30... 40... 50... 55... 60...

and this year's number, 62...

now I can apply for Social Security benefits...
at 65, I get to apply for Medicare...

somehow, it's not as much fun or nearly as cool, as it was...
to get to ride my bike on the road [10]...
become a teenager [13]...
get my driver's license [16]...
buy cigarettes [18]...
buy alcohol and vote [21]...
[yes, I'm THAT old, I couldn't vote until I was 21...]

and as grateful as I am for every day of my life...
the milestones that I now face...
create more apprehension than excitement...

but I know that God has plans for me...
and I do look forward to finding out what they are...
so I am grateful for all the days and years I've had...
as well as those left to me...

so I think that I'll get some change from my change jar...
and go get myself a birthday cake...
[Raley's has 2 layer cakes on sale for $9.99...
as well as pork roast for $.97 lb...]

let the feasting begin!

...a gentle fall rain

the heat spell of 90 degree days has finally broken...

after some unusually muggy days and a "teaser" sprinkle...
that barely got beyond the drops on the sidewalk phase...
we've had our first gentle, but steady, rain of the season...

I smelled the rain during the church service on Sunday...

and sure enough, it rained lightly but steadily the rest of the day...
washing the summer dust and heat away...

the nighttime temps have dropped now to the point of having windows closed...
any night now, we'll drop into the 40's...
and start only warming to the 60's during the day...
that's when I start my furnace and the remaining leaves will turn fast...

we are expecting rain showers over the weekend...
but no winter storms yet...
which is fine with me...
'cause I'd like to enjoy some fall color...
before the storms blow all the leaves away...