In the Wee Hours

A photo shot in full daylight seems appropriate to post at 4:00 in the morning. Planes are evidently flying to New England in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, meaning that older son is off on a one-day job interview. I feel for him as he submits application after application. Every job I've ever had I backed into through networking the old-fashioned way. Modern networking, the electronic kind, doesn't seem nearly as efficient.

Dodging a Bullet

Frankenstorm. Sandy. Call it what you will; we dodged a bullet from it this week. All the areas schools up to the university level are closed today for the second day in a row due to the power outages that could have happened. I prepared as much or more than I usually prepare for such occurrences, with extra water, extra brewed coffee, anything that could blow removed. I'd like to think those precautions pushed the storm's track away, but it's not nice to take credit away from Mother Nature. It wasn't our turn for devastation this time around, but maybe next time.

Falling Down on the Job

Since blogging is hardly my job, I should be able to survive not posting for a week. I've been trying to get my life in a bit of order not that you could tell it by looking at the chaos that surrounds me. Mostly, I've been trying to turn off the alarm clock and let my body get the sleep it apparently needs. The result is that each day has a couple hours less productive time than it used to, and posting things here, short though they may be, is one of the things that had to give. I'll see if I can do better in the coming week.

Whole Hole

This is a hole one of the sons dug in the woods behind the house over the course of several years. He reinforced the walls quite nicely; he had to, or I would have kept on his case about whether it might cave in on him while he was working. The other son and I went down there the other day to see what we could see, and that would be Mother Nature hard at work decorating the sides of the hole with ivy.

Have a Seat

Mother Nature is working hard to reclaim this chair left at the side of our yard. Mother Nature usually gets what she wants, too. I'd move the chair back into potential use, except that now I'm interested in watching nature work her course.

Seeing Eye to Eye

What? You've never looked a praying mantis in the eye? Neither have I since I held the camera out in front of me, upside down, to get this shot of one. I didn't want to open the gate and scare the little fella away. He had as much reason to be on the porch as I did.

Honey, I'm Home!

Did you miss me? I interrupted my regularly scheduled life for a week in Florida with the two women I'm shown with above. They took a week out of their lives to drive the husband and me around southwest Australia last spring (winter, to them), so I took a week out of mine to drive them around Orlando, Florida. Yes, that's Walt Disney World's Cinderella (the non-possessive form there is not a typo) Castle in the background albeit faintly. It was a grand week, though the Disney part of it greatly colored the two days spent at the parks of Universal Studios. I capped the week with dinner with my stepmother on the second anniversary of my Dad's death; I came home to cool fall temperatures wearing Dad's leather jacket for warmeth in more ways than one. It was a very good week, but it is also very good to be home.

In my Little Town

This is almost a repeat of an image I've used before; this has some shadow framing that wasn't there on the other shot. I love where I live. It's a good size. Tomorrow, I'm off to a bigger city, Orlando, Florida, where I imagine I will have a rollicking good time with four visitors from Down Under. Still, I will be glad at the end of a week, to return to my little town even if it really is more of a little city than a little town. It's a good size. It fits comfortably.

Pee-Yew!

No, I did not collect these 3,422 stink bugs; older son did. And while they would make a most handy weapon should someone break into the house, they do not reside on the dining room table other than to be photographed. These little creatures are the champion of pesky. I felt one crawling on my chest last night as I was settling in from a middle-of-the night bathroom run. I flicked it off and did get back to sleep, but still ... not when and where I want to deal with a stink bug!

The Back and the Forth

I'm feeling pulled in different directions for a couple of days. There's work to do both for my regular job and my annual gig hawking fiber for a day. There's a trip to prepare for, one on which I leave so early in the morning on the day after the fiber job that packing and other prep needs to be finished well, well in advance. The solution to feeling pulled, I guess, is to be flexible enough to stretch in multiple directions at once without losing one's balance. I'm not sure it's gonna work, but here goes!

Raindrops Keep Fallin'

This is only indirectly a rain photo, but then I seem to be getting to this blog only indirectly this week. Besides catching up from the past trip, there's getting ready for the coming one, not to mention my annual employment stint at the Fall Fiber Festival. I've spent time the last couple of days pricing some really neat yarn that might end up in my stash as payment for my efforts. As for the mention of rain, it is falling outside and showing no signs of stopping before I need to go out in it. I chose the flower photo to help me remember the good side of rain.