'Twas a dark and rainy morning...

Not the same effect as "'twas a dark and stormy night" but it'll do.  It was almost full dark out but around 6:30 I heard loud trucks on the street.  Now, it is garbage day so I expect to hear a truck go by a couple times but they usually wait until it's light outside.  This was different.  I opened the front door to see a couple of guys driving what looked like bulldozers but with leaf-gathering things on the front instead of blades, scraping all the wet leaf piles away from the curbs, and then about an hour later when there was a little more light to work by they came by again but this time it was the dump truck and a real bulldozer loading them up.  And I'm still not sure if the garbage guys came or not.
 
I'm including this flash photo of the birdbath and backyard I took before it was light enough because I think it looks like a Van Gogh, especially the background.

My cold has bloomed into a nice, chest-wrenching cough.  It didn't keep me up last night but I feel a bit like I was pummeled in the night.  I'll be having a Delsym cocktail before bed tonight.  I did get a bit of a snooze yesterday afternoon which I think might be the sole reason I'm alive today.

As soon as I went inside after filling the feeders yesterday this squirrel started clambering up the Slinky-clad shepherd's crook and perching up there nibbling a nut.  Then he'd throw a few on the ground, jump down to collect them, and then take off.  No wonder the feeder's empty every day.

Last night I finished Sudoku Snow #4 but didn't have the oomph to start Berry #4.  I'll see about that at work today.  Or maybe I'll cast on the last one-color ornament cover.  Maybe I'll lay my head down on the desk and nap all day.

October 28--David Mechlin, Margates with Diver.  Gina swam around the coral head and came face to face with a quartet of the most serious looking fish.  They were shaped like a semi-circle, flat across the bottom with a pretty even curve from their mouths to their tails.  They weren't serious like sharks or barracudas that could do serious damage to a diver.  No, these fish looked like they had a lot on their minds and acted like she had interrupted an important meeting.  They swam away in formation but not before giving her dirty looks for her bad manners.

Oh, man, this heavy day combined with my head cold makes me feel like I could just sleep the day away.  Do me a favor, don't come to the dive shop today.  Let a sick woman rest.
--Barbara