At this moment, there are literally piles of things I should be tackling. Piles of laundry, piles of paperwork, piles of leaves in the front yard, piles of box elder bugs waiting to be knocked from the doors and windows and swept off the porch. But when your aging dog lays his velvety chin on your knee and wags his tail, one must prioritize.
You wanna go for a walk?
Judging from the exponential increase in wagging, I'll take that as a yes.
Back in a while.
LATER:
What a fabulous walk. The air is cool. The sky is a vibrant blue. The trees are covered with green, yellow, orange, brown, and red leaves. So is the ground. The deer were bounding out of the cornfields. A hawk launched from the tree tops with a stirring cry. And I swear old Hoocher sniffed and marked every square inch of Outpost acreage.
Beats sorting whites and darks any day.
(You have Fall down there in Arizona, Chris? Do the cacti drop their spines? Or do you mark the season by turning the thermostat down one degree?)
I have to go pick up The Governor from preschool in a few minutes. Today was picture day. He had to take a bath because nothing short of a full shampoo and rinse can make his hair stay in place. After the bath, he asked me to gel his hair and work it up into a mohawk. When I told him no, he informed me that when he turned eight, he was going to move out of the house, become an adult, and do whatever he wanted.
I told him if he studied hard in preschool and ate his vegetables, he could probably move out when he turns seven.
"Great Neptune! That would be sweet, Mom!"
Note to self: time to change out the SuperFriends DVD in the car.
To recap: it's a great fall day here at The Outpost, and The Governor is going to move out 11 years ahead of schedule. The laundry is just going to have to wait while I break out a bottle of Cristal.
Posted by Cathy at October 5, 2006 10:35 AMFall? Hmmm, that's a concept I hadn't thought of for awhile now, probably since the fall of 04, when I was still in Monticello. (Freezing by the way) Last Halloween, my wife commented that she now understood why Halloween costumes were made the way they were, thin, flimsy, not warm. She told me she realized they're made primarily for people in warm climates! In MN, the costumes were covered up in so many layers of thinsulate, you couldn't tell what they were supposed to be. Anyone remember Halloween 1991? Yep, I was there digging out with the rest of you. Anyway, fall here means we can almost sleep with the windows open. Not quite because it still hits the mid 90's during the day but high 60's at night. A few more weeks and it'll be perfect. Sitting by the pool in the evening, smoking a cigar, wishing I had a Mich Golden Draft instead of this Coors. Ahhhhh, the good life.
Posted by: Chris H at October 5, 2006 10:51 AMI miss MN in fall! This week I've learned that some work waits and some doesn't. I've thrown out a loaf of bread and lots of tomatoes that sat around waiting for me to make soup. Finally made it this morning. (The tomatoes just keep coming!) And I sliced and cooked up all the green tomatoes for pie. Only two pies worth but it seemed like so much more! I'm feeling virtuous now, perhaps some hot chocolate.
A friend's son measured growing up by weight. Life was going to be pretty cool once he weighed 50 lbs.
Posted by: Jenn at October 5, 2006 11:44 AMWhat's really taking me some getting used to is seeing my neighbors cacti with Christmas tree lights on it. I'll send a picture when he gets them put up again. Strange indeed.
Posted by: Chris H at October 5, 2006 11:46 AM"Or do you mark the season by turning the thermostat down one degree?"
Actually, we bought our house in May 2005. I still don't know if our furnace even works. Last winter, we never ran it. The inside of the house stayed about 66-68 degrees even during the "coldest" weather in late January or early February.
I told my wife, it's my goal to NOT run our furnace until winter of 2007/08 at the earliest.
Posted by: Chris H at October 5, 2006 12:31 PMI'm requesting fall pictures!!! I miss fall in MN. The spruce and birch trees don't give us much color up here, mainly yellow. And fall lasts all of 2-3 weeks, then bam!! SNOW. Our heat is on and the wood stove is burning... I don't even put the winter clothes away anymore!
Posted by: Emmy at October 6, 2006 12:11 AMI agree, fall pics would be nice. Winter clothes, now there's something I haven't had to worry about in awhile. My idea of winter clothes now is a long sleeve shirt, or maybe a light golf pullover sweater, only when I'm teeing off early in the AM in the middle of January tho. Is that too much? I never know.... Woohoo!
Posted by: Chris H at October 6, 2006 01:06 PM