November 1, 2023
Wasn’t it just a couple of
days ago that I commented on our having arrived in October, and where the hell
had the time gone? Well, here we are again, at the beginning of a new month. And
while I don’t recall any great change in the environment accompanying the
beginning of October, I can’t say the same for November.
It is chilly out there!
It’s not that we didn’t see
this cold weather coming, because of course we did. But I can’t say that we,
here in the Ashbury household, are prepared for it. We are not.
We did manage to meet the
neighborhood demands of the season yesterday. But as we’re older, neither of us
felt we could sit outside to hand out candies to wandering ghosts, ghouls, and
goblins. We can’t have them knocking on the door, of course, because, well,
dogs. Dogs that bark and get overly excited and want to go outside and greet
the knockers. And not only dogs this year, but we now have that kitten (three
months old next week), and kitten thinks he needs to discover this “outside” he
can see but never touch. And while the closed gate of the porch successfully
keeps the dogs safe, that darn kitten is small enough to go through the slats
of the gate—and limber enough to jump up on the porch railing and jump down on
the other side.
He is a very determined little
critter.
David set up a candy bowl
outside—on the walkway, so no one even had to climb the steps to the porch. He even
set this cute light in the likeness of a dog on the step above it so that it
shined down into the bowl.
The good news is that I
managed to locate Halloween candy on Monday when I went to our former regular
grocery store (no longer our regular store because their prices are
outrageous). I had been to our local large mega store on Saturday, but they had
no Halloween candy at all. They had large boxes of chips, but I didn’t want to
hand out chips. Neither did I think Christmas candy, which they had in abundance,
would do.
So, I bought two packages of
candy, 50 pieces each, and was relieved to have plenty for the handout. We don’t usually have a lot of takers in this
neighborhood, and we always have a lot left over.
However, this year was
different. There had been several homes in the neighborhood that had, over the
last few months changed hands. And apparently, we now have quite a few children
in the neighborhood.
And finally, the bad news: At
least one of the new little gremlins came along and emptied the entire
large bowl of candies into his/her bag. I guessed it was a new gremlin because
we have actually left the candy bowl unattended the last two years, and that
hadn’t happened.
David took more candy out to
put in the bowl, and there was still some left when he brought it back in again
once the parade of costumed children ceased. Not only that, but there was also
enough in the packages in the house to give those who live here and suffer from
the occasional chocolate craving something to nibble for at least the next few
months.
The squirrels have done their
part in removing the fallen walnuts from our yard, sidewalk, and roadway. Even
with the great dent we made that one weekend in early October, I’d say the
critters had a good walnut harvest from us this year. The leaves of that tree are
nearly completely all down, now. Just in time for the neighboring maples to
begin to drop their leaves.
We have a lot of yard work
left to do, and since we can’t hope for warm days, hope for sunny ones in which
to get the work done. The leaves in the back yard, especially, need to be
raked, because ticks like to hide in them, and well, dogs.
I, for one, used to love to
rake leaves in the autumn. I enjoyed the fresh air, the slight sting to my cheeks,
and the sense of accomplishment when the job was done. Yes, even if more leaves
fell and I had to do it all over again the next week, I still enjoyed the work.
Those days are behind me now,
and I console myself—as I do with most things I can no longer accomplish—that I
at least took the time to appreciate those moments as they happened.
I’m still doing that, of
course. Only the moments themselves have changed. What hasn’t changed is the
spirit of gratitude with which I embrace them.
Love,
Morgan
https://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
No comments:
Post a Comment