As Our Life Goes On

The calendar that the Stow City Schools sends each year is good for alerting us about many things. The notations for October 30th were misleading though. I looked a the calendar and dutifully changed the clocks. Argh! That was a mistake that did not cause any serious problems except a bit of red faced embarrassment when I was alerted about the mistake. I turned the page on the calendar when told that I had the wrong day and there it was again. The actual date will be next week. I guess the proof readers did not catch this but I should have!

There are trees that have completely lost their leaves some of the leaves seem to tenaciously hang onto the branches. The warmth of the sun made this somewhat cool day seem beautiful. There were plenty of hikers on the bike trail all day. I liked the sounds of the leaves rustling as the people walked along. 

The yard is very muddy! The deer that made the track above appeared to have been travelling fast through the yard. It left many prints like this. It is at least 3" deep and the mud is slung up in front of the hole that the split hoof made.  It is a large print and I would have liked to have seen the deer that did this.  

It was a pleasure to receive a visit from each of our 86 year old twin neighbors today. Harry came laden with 2 dozen jumbo brown eggs straight from a farm and Harold arrived with a dozen beautiful carnations. Russ doesn't expect to get paid for the plowing of their driveways in the Winter. A stream of eggs, produce and other things comes our way all year long however. I love carnations. 

The Red Japanese Maple tree seems afire with color today. The color has changed drastically since yesterday and the leaves are now a neon orange-red. Once the leaves turn this hue they fall quickly and litter the cement pad outside of our breezeway as well as the driveway. The yard has rainwater laying everywhere and it is still raining. It is mushy and very muddy. This plus the cold temperatures made taking a walk a chore rather than a pleasure today. 

It was just getting light a 8 AM this morning when that big red dump truck pulled up in front of the house. That was the delivery time that the company had stated and they were precise. The gentleman in the red T-shirt did a great job of tailgating the 10 tons of stone off the truck.  Russ used a box blade, tractor and some hand raking to refine the job. The section of drive that goes from the horseshoe shaped drive to the big barn was the worse. It had turned into a real muddy mess because of the record rainfalls. It had also been quite a while since this part of the drive had received much attention. It looks better and probably there will be less mud tracked into the house. 

The sunny day with 65 degree temperature was just right for working outside most of the day. Little else seemed to get done. 

This dark cold rainy day finds me almost speechless. 

I don't hide the fact that I love to shop at thrift stores. The scene above is from the parking lot at the Goodwill store in Streetsboro. The beautiful woods is just full of colorful maples and other trees. The woods is just behind the old Walmart and across the road from Goodwill. Walmart moved to a new and larger superstore down the road. The plaza containing the Goodwill is in decline. The anchor store, Giant Eagle, moved to a new facility too. Since then the plaza has continued to lose stores and fewer than one third of the stores are occupied. The parking lot finally got some attention. See the patches in the picture below. The owner of the plaza did neglect the entrance road to the plaza however. There are cavernous holes that extend more the half way across the road. I just drive on the wrong side of the road when leaving. 

Today I was remembering 9/11/2001. Below are memories of traveling to a flea market near Pittsburgh in September of 2001 shortly after the tragedy.  The organization that runs the flea market asked people to submit any stories about the flea market or the people that they know from the flea market. No other stories were submitted so mine was the only one published in their monthly flea market handout.  It is said that occasions that are happy, sad or traumatic can form the most vivid memories.  Such are the memories of our trip to Flea-tique ten years ago in September of 2001. It was shortly after the  terrible events of September 11thin New York City that this flea market was scheduled.  We were in a quandary about whether or not we should be going to an event like this after the tragedy.  The leaders of our country were telling us to normalize our activities and go on with our lives.  It was a difficult thing to do. We packed our bags and got ready to go.  We left on Saturday

There is a myth that the coloration of the woolly bear caterpillar is an indicator of what the Winter weather will be. If the caterpillar has a wide brown band it is supposed to be a mild Winter and if the color is mostly black with a thin brown band or absent brown color it will be a harsh Winter. The caterpillar above was crawling in the yard behind the garage. If it is an sign that we could trust it would certainly be good news. I suppose that this is why the concept of coloration of this caterpillar is called a myth. 

It was important for me to go to the post office as I had many packages to ship and I had printed labels online for most of them. The online labels are date and zip code specific.  It has been in the 40s all day and the wind has gusted with a ferocity that chills to the bone. Once I got home that was it. I cooped myself up into the house and stayed there. It is interesting to see how much housework can be accomplished when you stay home. 

There are still some isolated pockets of Fall color in our area but the rain has caused many of the leaves to drop. The rest of my purple cone flowers bloomed long ago and only dried seed heads remain. This lone flower seems to want the good weather to go on longer too. That probably won't happen. In our area of Ohio this will be the rainiest year ever. We are now only a few rains away from hitting and going over the record. That is not a good thing. The yard is mushy and my usual walks have been curtailed somewhat. The days seem dark and dismal. Do you suppose that keeping more lights on in the house really helps to change the perception of  darkness in your mind? They say it does but I am not convinced. 

We added a wood furnace to our existing oil burner furnace heating system in the basement many years ago.  Some modifications and switches had to be made to do this. The wood burning furnace is being used to burn odd sized wood that would be unhandy to burn in the upstairs airtight stove which was added a few years after the larger furnace downstairs. The heat is a nice radiant heat that does not dry out the air like forced air heat often does. The weather is now cool enough to need the heat night and day. Brrrrr!

Undone chores and household upkeep kept me busy all day so not too much to say in a blog. Our burning bushes turn red now that they are in partial sun rather than in the shade. We had to move them when the sewer line was installed through the yard. 

There was an unused loaf of Nickles cinnamon streusel swirl bread in my freezer so I thawed it out a bit and baked a big dish of bread pudding yesterday afternoon. Cinnamon streusel bread is made with a sweet dough and it has a sweet crumbled topping so less sugar is needed. I really did not use a recipe. Brown sugar was used rather than white and I added some vanilla, raisins, nutmeg and a dash of salt to the mix. This batch took at least a quart of milk and 5 large eggs. You could use your favorite bread pudding recipe and just add cinnamon swirl bread instead of regular white bread. It is tasty hot or cold. Let those cold breezes blow. I will keep warm in the kitchen. 

It is not a good day to be out in the yard as the gusty and somewhat chilly winds seem unending. The fallen branches can be picked up on a calmer day. I did get to walk through the fallen leaves. I love the sound that they make when I shuffle my feet through them. It brings up the memories of when we burned leaves at our home in Kent. The smoke hung heavy throughout the town. It was a good smell.  I got a summons for jury duty today and I was really glad to see that it was for Stow Municipal Court rather than the courthouse in downtown Akron.  The new municipal court building is a short drive from home and in much more convenient place for me. 

Kelsey's Tree Jordan's Tree We often wonder if our granddaughters remember going out into the yard many years ago and planting these trees with grandpa Russ. The first tree shown is a maple and the second is a tulip poplar. The trees remind me of the girls when they were small and anxious to help to plant them. 

This is just a lovely sunny day. We have had more rounds of rain and the ground is saturated. It is a good day to work on outside projects so I have no more to say today. 

Russ made the error of commenting to a friend last weekend that only his very special friends had all sent him birthday cards for his birthday which was last week. Last evening we heard a muffled knock on our outside back door. We had locked up for the night and it was difficult to hear the knocking. Lo and behold there stood two of our good friends. Their arms were full. They bought a cake and some gifts for the birthday boy. They must have searched a very long time to find the appropriate card that alludes to special friends. MMMMMMMMM!! Coffee and cake was a perfect evening dessert. We laughed and reminisced about the past. We used to do impromptu visits more often. We value our special friends. 

Sunday evening was mild and warm and it seemed like a good time to take a trip around the back roads. The colors in the foliage around Lake Pippen and Lake Rockwell were just fantastic.  The intersection of Hudson and Judson roads is always colorful in the Fall. See pictures above and below.  The colorful trees serve as a backdrop for the farm fields in the foreground. The late day sun lit up this landscape.  The day became darker as we finished our drive around the country roads. Only the trees that still caught the rays of the sun showed the    brightness of the colors. 

Russ is installing a new battery in the van. See him under the hood.  Russ noticed that the headlights seemed very dim as we traveled out into the dark morning. We were half way to our destination when he noticed the battery in the 1971 Dodge van was discharging. We went on to where we were headed. There was a new voltage regulator in the tool box and that was installed before looking for someone to give us a jump. The regulator did not fix the discharge problem so perhaps it is the alternator.  Then it was straight to the closest Auto Zone for a new battery which was due for this vehicle anyway. The new battery actually started to charge when we first started for home but then it started to discharge so the electrical problem will have to be found and fixed before we travel in it again.

I love covered dish parties. There were a variety of super tasty dishes at our table last night and I think I tried them all. The talk and music filled hours seemed to fly by until it was almost midnight before all of the guest left. That hour is a bit later than our usual bedtime so my body seems a bit out of kilter today.  There are honeybees in my flowers today. The one above was unhappy with my picture taking a it kept buzzing at me so I backed off. A bit later there were more than one of these bees collecting nectar. I was happy to see them.  I have been busy as a bee today but there will not be enough hours or enough energy to finish all that needs done.  The trees behind the house are showing great Fall colors. 

This could be the last really nice warm Saturday for the Hartville Ohio Flea Market which is open year round. A light fog hung in the early morning sky. The sellers overflowed into the parking lot areas so there was plenty of merchandise new and old to look at. The produce was very reasonably priced today and I came away with many bags. Fresh raw cut up veggies will be served on my table this evening. We were happy to leave Hartville early as the traffic picked up and the town became packed with people.  The beauty of the Mogadore reservoir, which is visible when traveling on Rt. 43 to and from the flea market, was not to be ignored. The trees have changed colors considerably in just the last few days. People were out in rowboats enjoying fishing in the great weather. 

There are household chores that we perform on a regular basis but when guests are coming we really get into action. We surely want our friends to think that we are expecting them.  Drop in friends see us as we usually are. We are clean enough for us but not party ready.  A covered dish party gives us the inspiration to do what needs done anyway. Today was spent organizing and deep cleaning. We look forward to seeing our friends. The house will be cleaner for a while.