Our weather has had a nasty turn. Cold, rain, ice, brr. Naturally, for the first time in months (August?) I am scheduled to open today. I would rather stay home, curl up in front of the fireplace and read a good typography book.

It has been fairly quiet here lately. C is busy with almost end of semester stuff (grading, whiny students, research, etc.). I had a job interview a couple of weeks back but nothing since then. Our fall has had more color than we are used to. I think all the rain earlier helped the trees hang onto their leaves long enough for them to actually change.

We will be having a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just us and our katties. The meal is mostly planned, all we need is a dessert of some kind.

Our budget is recovering from the unexpected expenses in October. I have been enjoying having money scheduled for specific events. Call me nuts (probably already do huh? :)), but I am looking forward to paying the car insurance in a few days. The money is in the account, its job is assigned and I just want it doing what I told it to do.

I am going to send C out on Black Friday to pick up all our Christmas stuffs. She Loves shopping in crowded stores at midnight. Actually, it is her idea of hell I suspect, but we do need to get out sometime next week and pick up the few things we need to pick up. We have already decided on our Christmas gift to each other (year park pass for TX), so we don't need to sneak around picking things up for each other.

I need to head off to work. Stay warmish.

We had a tragedy happen here last night. Our little Daph died.

Two weeks ago we took her to the vet to see if we could finally find a way to stop her from itching. They gave her a shot and some special foods that seemed to help, for a bit. Last Friday she pretty much stopped eating and began to have a case of the sniffle/sneezes. Saturday she stopped eating entirely and could not be tempted even with tuna. By Sunday night we were worried enough that we took her to an animal ER where they said she had an upper respiratory illness and kept her overnight hooked to an IV with penicillin. Monday morning we took her to our full time vet where they kept the IV hooked up. Tuesday morning they took some xrays and decided to pull a few molars (FORL-feline ortho something or other) and installed a feeding tube. We brought her home Wednesday and began the feeding/healing process. She was having trouble breathing, but we assumed it was still just the respiratory illness. I looked in on her before going to sleep (we were keeping her separate from the other katties) and she did not seem better or worse, but she did respond to my presence. This morning, before beginning my pre-work preps, I looked in on her and she was dead. Poor kitty, she will be missed.

She was the bravest little timid cat and no one can purr the way she could (loud enough to shake windows). She loooved a good belly rub and was a wonderful companion. Good bye old Daph, sweet dreams.

Summer has been a bit busy. My work schedule has been all over the calendar, some evenings, some mornings, some irregular weekdays. Very few extra hours, but steady work. Now that fall is upon us I should be moving back to my normal shift. The regular hours should be nice again.

A very nice, but short rain came through here yesterday morning. Lots of booming too. It was not enough to turn the summer burnt grass green, but I did not have to do any watering for the first time in weeks.

We have been having some real nice warm weather lately. Highs in the 100s, though I suspect those nice temps will be going away in the next week or so.

Lately a road runner has been coming to visit. I think it is visiting for the water in the bird bath (changed daily) when it gets hot. They are rather big birds. Should I ever manage to get a photo, I will post it here.

We will be making a trip to KC come the end of Sept. C's daughter will be flying in for a week, so it is a great chance to visit. The following week we will likely be dropping in to see her parents as well.

Other than that it has been quiet here.

Summer is settling in here. We should see our first 100 F day this week and with a little luck we will climb over it. The crepe myrtyles are blooming, though the ones in our yard are just starting. If we had okra we would likely be about to pick our first ones. The barley is being harvested, the corn is looking good, and the sorghum is getting tall. All the rain this spring has left everything green, though I suspect that will change as it warms up.

We had a wee turtle visit a couple weeks ago. The first time I saw it was when I was running the grass whip. As I was making my usual casual sideways sweeps, I saw this green rock and was about to clear the weeds around it when I realized it was a turtle. We greeted each other the next day as I was about to step out the front door to get the mail. It took the whole day to make it around the house. A day or so later, I saw it again near the garage door. It must have been hiding in our big tall weeds/bushed near the front door. I have not seen it since then, so I hope it has managed to move on to more hospitable environs. The lizard that harasses Charlie is still around, I saw him scurrying about yesterday as I was dragging the lawn mower and whip out of the garage.

Work is about the same. They keep me hopping when I am there and add the occasional extra hours here and there, but nothing more. C keeps on working, though she did do some driving yesterday. First time she went fast in years. She was nervous and all, but she did fine.

The plants I repotted after we moved to our new place have survived and in some cases thrived. I am very happy that all three of our hibiscus are alive and well. C is a bit disgruntled with the basil as it keeps getting spider mites or some kind of mold an is struggling. Likely due to being to close to the hibiscuses.

How weird, a woman just walked into the library who looks exactly like Mrs. Brown, Barb's fourth grade teacher. Of course, it has been 40 or more years since I last saw her, so the resemblance is likely not all that striking. Curious, I wonder what we recognize in faces that makes us think of someone else.

I am working my last shift at the used book store for the friends for the summer. I did not sign up for any shifts over the summer as my work hours are in flux and I did not want to have to be making changes, or missing real work, every little bit. I must admit, I won't miss this place. It has been very slow lately and I have no idea why that might be. Maybe as the weather warms up more people will show up at the library to stay cool. Maybe not.

I did get in a great deal of continuing ed this past week. I was very grateful to my employers for allowing me to attend the classes. I still think they are being very good to me.

Barb and Audrey spent the past week visiting me and C. We spent two nights and a day in San Antonio visiting the river walk, the botanical gardens, and the national cemetery. There is a Lingrell buried there (he is/was a civil war vet) and being able to visit his grave felt rather special. The hotel we stayed at was right across from the Alamo, in fact, we were able to see it from our windows.

Though we never really did anything super special on the other days, they all felt full. We were able to talk, laugh, and get to know each other once more. It has been so long since our last visit. I was very sad to see them leave Sunday. I do hope we are able to see each other sooner than the 3 (6) years between the last visit. Maybe C and I will be able to head up north sometime next year instead.

The house feels empty without them here and a little sadder. Guess I miss them a bit. :) On the upside they had a good trip home and not the nightmare Barb had last time she visited. 

This week is a rather crazy one, lots of early hours and extra hours along with the book store hours. I should make up for some of the lost time from last week so it is ok.

On my way to work this morning I noticed a field of grain was heading out. Sure, it has been green for some time, but this is the first time I noticed any real change. Even though we have had a very wet spring, the crop is still very short. I have been away from farming for too long to identify the crop accurately, but I think it might be wheat. I also noticed that the fields of corn had wee short corn plants growing. The weather the last few days has been nice, and today was really really nice.

I am impressed with how green everything is here this spring. When we arrived, this area was in the midst of a nasty drought and everything was looking dry and desiccated. All the rain this spring has changed how things look. I even saw a guy fishing in a stream bed that has historically (my history) been dry.

We likely have one more cool rainy night to survive, but with any luck that will be the end of that!

Less than 3 weeks until the sisters come visit! I am getting excited!