Calling All Rakes!

It's time to rake away the carpet of fallen leaves on the front lawn so if any of you have the afternoon off and want to do something, come on over, bring your rake.  I also need to dig out the snowblower so I can call the repair shop to come and get it (and the lawnmower too) for a tuneup.  I like to get them both tidied up every other season.  I'm not much for oil and spark plug changing or blade sharpening so I'm willing to pay someone to do it,  plus they come and pick them up and bring them back.  Worth the price for maintenance.  It's also time to knock down the patio table and put it into the shed for the winter with the stacked chairs, and hang the umbrella in the garage.  I have to say it's a lot more fun to get the stuff out than put it away.   I also need to call one of the dive shop customers who is a handyman to replace the window well window over our washer.  Dad replace one of the panes with a piece of Masonite that he plugged the dryer vent through.  It's worked okay for a long time but now one of the corners is broken (chewed?) off allowing unimpeded access to any random rodent passing by.  I don't want to play host to all of the neighborhood voles, mice, and chipmunks.  Nope, don't wanna, so it needs to be fixed.  Durwood asked if he couldn't just attach another piece of wood over the hole but agreed that it needed a professional fix when I said, "it was a Hank repair."  My dad was notorious for his creative home repairs.  (remember the "sock in the toilet tank" story? well, drat, I can't find where I put it on here so here you go in a nutshell--Dad used an orphan sock to redirect a geyser from the fill tube in the toilet tank instead of just putting in new guts)  Today's Photo a Day theme is "calm" and I took the perfect picture quite by accident this morning when I went out to fill the birdbath.  The sun wasn't up over the horizon yet and a jet was flying over way up high so its contrail was bright orange in the dark blue sky.  No noise except the early morning birds and that beautiful sky with an orange streak.  Ahhh.  It's starting to smell a bit funky down in the basement; that means that our sauerkraut is doing its thing.  Funky is going to be a mild term for things a few weeks down the road, but it's so worth it when you have kraut that tastes like something instead of just sour like the canned or bagged stuff from the grocery.

October 21--Greek, Bracelet with Central Medallion.  I like digging around in dark and dusty antique shops.  I rarely have anything in mind, nothing I'm on the hunt for, I just like finding treasures.  Doesn't even have to be valuable in a monetary way but whatever it is that catches my eye has to be interesting.  I like things I can spin stories about.  I like to imagine the past owners, what they were like, and how they lived.  Like this gold bangle bracelet I found in Ralph's last week.  I know it's gold because of the soft yellow color of the metal.  Ralph tried to tell me the stone is a topaz but I bet it's glass.  This bracelet's old, really old, and in the very old days they treasured glass most of all.

Not much drama in that but an interesting start, don't you think?  It's time to scrape the banana fuzz off my teeth (don't you hate that feeling?) and then tog up in tackling yardwork clothes and get to it.  Too bad there won't be a flyover but the football boys are out of town this weekend.  Next weekend for sure and maybe the weekend after some airplanes should come.  Did I ever tell you they come only for me?  The rest of you see it only incidentally.  Just thought you should know.
--Barbara Sue