Indications of Autumn

It seems we are a truck stop on the south bound super highway. Every day for the past few weeks we've been invaded by thousands and thousands of birds. Very reminiscent of Hitchcock's movie. And I'll tell ya, they make quite a racket with all that "Are we there yet?", "Mom, he's touching me." and "Fred, don't you think you should stop and ask for directions?"

It appears Mother Nature has hit menopause and can't decide where she wants the thermostat set. Monday it was in the 90's, Wednesday in the 50's tonight it is said will reach the 30's. I resisted the temptation to turn on the heat until this morning. I couldn't take that awful sound anymore. The sound of my teeth chattering.

Keeping the windows closed on the back porch has reminded me why I was going to clean that room. It reeks. So yesterday, while A was summarizing Macbeth in his own words, I tackled scrubbing the furniture, windows, doors and trim out there. Still need to do the walls and floors. It's starting to smell a little better. I then proceeded to explain to Bandit, aka Mr. Mud, how females, particularly the human ones, prefer for the men in their lives to smell good and the way to smell good is to stay clean. Almost the exact conversation I've recently had with my teenage son. Neither of them seems to have yet fully grasped the concept.

The cold weather also reminded me of other things we need to accomplish around here. Like changing the furnace filter. The wonderful odor emitting from the duct work this morning when I first kicked the furnace on was lovely. I believe it was a mixture of burning dust, cobwebs and I'm hoping a few spiders. (I've been spotting some humongous suckers around here lately.)

It also means it's time to break down and spend some cash. We need to replace the shoe molding on at least the exterior walls to help with drafts. And as much as I don't care much for heavy curtains, I'm also not fond of freezing my fanny off. We don't need curtains for privacy, but we really do for warmth based on the fact that I couldn't put enough clothes on to stay warm last year. Sure, we've got the new double pane windows, but if you're sitting right next to them they're still cold. So it was time to finally sit down and decide what to order. Of course it's not just that easy. When you have tall ceilings you also have tall windows. This seriously limits your selection. Luckily, I found some thermal drapes I think I can live with from JCPenny and they were even on sale. I also splurged and ordered a braided rug for the front hall, hoping it will add some much needed draft busting qualities to that space. I wanted to order one for the family room, but of course it's not available in that size in our area. It's good to know that the economy is doing so well, that these companies feel like they can pick and choose which paying customer to sell to. It's also good to know that the CEOs making these wise decisions are earning the big bucks. Grrrr.

Speaking of grrr... this not smoking thing is killin' me. The cravings the past two days have been nearly unbearable. I'm still plugging along though. Of course I say that as I'm cramming the last piece of cake down my throat straight out of the pan. Tonight, we diet!