Moving Along

Whoa. When I started this whole "blog" thing, the goal was to check in and post with some regularity. I see where some time has elapsed since the last post. A lot of leaves have fallen since that walk down the path. A lot of leaves remain yet to fall.
Still quite a bit of color out there, but it is going fast. I am at the point in our yard where I can rake a little now and a little later, or slack off now and deal with a whole bunch later. I have chipped away at 'em, but the bulk remain on the ground or up in the trees, mocking me.
When our daughter visited a couple weeks ago, we took a three-dog trip out to the reservoir to see what was going on out there. It was one of those pleasant, decently warm days that I am beginning to miss.
SOMEBODY thought it would be cute for the doggies to have matching bandanas (festooned with electric guitars - I am not sure of the connection, but they're colorful). So there we are...
Halloween came and went. My wife became Tweety Bird (as someone said on Facebook, "Trick or Tweet"...) Tweety brought interesting reactions - the toddlers were a bit apprehensive, the older kids reciting "I tawt I taw a putty tat..." The adults in tow gave knowing glances.

And I have to mention here that of the 170 or so kids that graced our porch that evening, almost all of them were quite polite - most saying "thank you" without a prompt from Mom or Dad down in the shadows. And what the heck - kudos to the moms and dads who were along, trying to instill that politeness in their kiddies.

I always look for trends in the costumes - what (or who) is in, what's popular. I have to say I did not see any trend this year - no hero leapt out and stole the show. There was broad diversity. I think if there was any trend, it was toward the kids (and parents) doing the home-made thing, rather than buying costumes off the shelf. I would attribute that to the still stinky economy around here.
Finally, a friend gave me this two-seater squirrel feeder for my birthday a while back, and I finally got around to screwing it ("Hillbilly style", my daughter admonished) into the highest reach of our dead redbud tree that I cannot just cut all the way to the ground yet because birds around here love to use it as their staging area as they prepare to attack the birdbaths or various feeding stations. Anyhow, I love how squirrels are now going to do anything but actually sit in the chairs, human style. This guy found the chair back to be a more than adequate perch.
So now we're caught up and, like the little guy up there, I'm outta here...