Changes

Nature pulled one of her quick-change tricks again.  Temps had been in the low 80s-high 70s for quite awhile...nice fall weather.  Yesterday morning while it was still dark, I heard a pretty good wind blowing and robe and slippers felt good.  When it was light enough, I saw the deck was wet (I knew I should have blown off all those leaves last week).  It turned out to be the warning shot over the bow, as it never did truly rain...just a heavy mist sort of day.  The real stuff is due today or tomorrow, and they're saying it could snow as low as Pollock Pines.  I looked at Stove, but decided just to keep my puffy jacket on and maybe heat up the bean bag.  Celeste did her part as a lap warmer.  Stove will be called to duty soon enough.

Watching daily election results has been exhausting.  My sleep patterns have been thrown completely out of whack and I hardly know whether I'm coming or going.  I've participated in every presidential election since I turned 21, the legal coming of age back in the day.  I've voted for, and I've voted against, and we woke up the next day and went on with our lives.  This time is different.  This time is scary.  Riots, shootings, threats, lies.  It's politics, for crying out loud!  We are a democracy!  We are Americans!  We need to act like it.

Morning and evening, the deer are on the move.  It's rut season and the bucks are strutting their stuff, following the does or even the scent of the females.  I've seen forked horns, three-pointers, and one grand fellow with a full rack.  When the wire gate to the hay barn was breached, I knew that some had decided to help themselves to the alfalfa.  Gotta keep up their strength, ya know.

Politics, weather, whatever comes next, have me thinking about the Bette Davis line in All About Eve (1950), "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

Stay safe.  Be well.