out, booksellers, Fran

 * Out! Out! Wearing five layers and a pink frozen nose I and he go forth into the clear sky arctic cold. We return much refreshed.

* 'The Booksellers' on Am.

* Fran got booted out of school for "nonspecific surliness".

days, lights, mouse, lavender, vaporizer

 * Days of sulfur colored skies, the sun blocked. I search to find gems. My mother's quiet, orderly influence. The medical equipment lady who calls to find out why I have not picked up supplies. A pledge to keep fresh flowers on the table. Books. Two frisky dogs who force me out of bed and do not allow me back into it until late at night. A boarder who 'touches base' throughout the day.

* I string fairy lights through the dark hallways, keeping them lit 24/7.

* An intruding mouse (the first of the season) caught.

* A friend who unexpectedly tucks a bag of lavender between the doors.

* The trusty vaporizer.

Ingrid

 * Ingrid Michaelson:The storm is coming but I don't mind. People are dying, I close my blinds. All that I know is I'm breathing now./I want to change the world, instead I sleep. I want to believe in more than you and me. But all that I know is I'm breathing. All I can do is keep breathing. All we can do is keep breathing. Now.

PO, socket, drone, power, rain

 * She: The canyon is being evacuated. The fire is coming closer.                                Me: Oh! Oh! I've got to go get the mail.                                                                She: I'll drive out to get it for you.                                                                        Me: Can I come with you?                                                                                    So we rode out country just the two of us. What a kind thing for her to do; drive an old lady. The old lady wallowed in the bliss of not having to drive, looking around at all the delights she misses.

* The wind socket dangling from the tree disconnects and takes a jaunt in high winds to the perimeter of the yard. Someday it will pop right over the fence never to be seen again. As I was sitting out yesterday surrounded by another day of high winds I noticed it had wrapped two of its arms around the tree from which it hangs. Did not want to travel today, huh?

* Photos of Vermont via a drone

* I have the power to bring rain. While being blown about by the wind yesterday I noticed that the white plastic drain thingy casually connected to the drain pipe at the side of the house had blown across to the back fence. "It's not going to rain, I can reconnect it tomorrow." Ha! Today I woke to gently falling rain.

* Rain...Rain...Rain...Luscious air cleaning rain.

opener, fires, silos, barns, Dolly, cd

* I bought a new can opener because mine became a can't open her.

* Having experienced  fires from the west, I drove away out east onto the prairie to view them from another perspective. Our valley is socked in with smoke and I could see where the fires are now from this easterly vantage point. Eerie.

* Brick silos.

* Dilapidated, weathered, unpainted, wooden barns.

* 'Dolly Parton' on NF. Insightful. Just as I see her.

* CD's as the fires yellow light fades.

pie, wasted, St Anthony

* Pie tops decorated with cut out dough.

* And in the end all I am able to dredge up of our bond is strife, keeping my mouth shut, giving in, keeping my guard, protecting myself, swallowing deeply, my mantra:"You're okay. You're a good person.". What a wasted time together.

* St Anthony of Padua invoked for finding lost things.

Geraldine, Fred, bugs, relief, pass, MO, gee, dictionary

* Geraldine Granger dancing in a pink tutu.

* Fred Thursday.

* Ambushed by the flowers at the market, I succumb.

* Three Terminex vans in a row at a traffic light:"We're gonna get them nasty bugs!"

* Relief that someone I know decided not to travel.

* 'Pass Me By' "So tell the whole wide world, if you don't happen to like it; deal me out, thank you kindly, pass me by." I sang 'damn world' in the shower this morning.

* Molly. A dog with an MO.

* Being content and happy for no reason. "Hmmm...Why am I happy. Golly gee. I just am!"

* I have a live dictionary in the basement.

* So weird..Later I watch a video of a little boy with a chickpea stuck up his nose. The doctor wedges it out. I dissolve in tears. Any little victory means much today.

vine, do, Harvey

 * We all are quite affected by unplanned step changes/quantum leaps currently. I considered mentioning paradigm shifts but evidentially that term refers to mental changes only. I am going to use it anyway because I like how it sounds:paradigm shift. (No, that is not 2 old fashioned nightgowns for ten cents.)Floating around in this miasma (noxious atmosphere) of surprises I find many, many constants. The stars remain, as do the sun and moon. My cravings for coffee ice cream and cola persist. For thirty falls the vine leaves on the fence by the post office have become in October a brilliant heart stopping red. This vine covers a fifty foot long wire fence. At last week's visit the northern four feet of the fenced vine had become red leaving the remaining footage summer green. Today, today, the entire length of the fenced vine was red, really red, red, red. Although I have a working relationship with plants, until today I never sought to identify this vine. The red has mesmerized me for thirty Octobers to a numbing. On this visit I popped off leaf clusters for identification. Achieving this popping meant creating a close relationship with the vine (I wore my mask). I found light green pea sized berries  connected to the leaves. Off to the plant nursery went I, a not boring excursion because the tree leaves have begun to mutate color and it is fun to drive around. Virginia Creeper!! Sounds like an east coast serial killer. No, no, a constant October green to red vine.

* "The dog ate my bra. Thank goodness I don't wear one with an underwire anymore. I think the underwire bras gave me cancer." Says he,"Underwire bras have killed more women than any other garment." After quiet contemplation I could not think of a refutation.

* Elwood P. Dowd: Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.

* Dr Sanderson: I think that your sister's condition stems from trauma.                     Elwood P. Dowd: From what?                                                                               Dr Sanderson: Uh, trauma. Spelled t-r-a-u-m-a. It means shock. There's nothing unusual about it. There's the "birth trauma"-the shock of being born.....                     Elwood P. Dowd: That's the one we never get over.

* Veta Louise Simmons: Myrtle Mae, you have a lot to learn, and I hope you never learn it.

* Elwood P. Dowd: Wouldn't that get a little monotonous, just Akron, cold beer and 'you poor, poor thing' for two weeks?

* Regarder 'Harvey'!!

October, vapor, disagreement, Sitwell, Van Gogh, sunflowers

 * I dream of collecting  tangly, viney, delicate bittersweet, in home to drape it around my rooms. I want to reach, stretch high for persimmons. Persimmons to be carried home for puddin'. I long to open milkweed pods to set free their pure white  silk. To watch the silk float on the October air. 

* Hugging the cool mist vaporizer for a soothing of wildfire smoke irritated membranes.

* Reading 'How to Have a Disagreement Like an Adult'. Nine items but at the end of the first 'If you decide to do this item you do not have to read the remaining items'. I decide on the first but continue reading, with curiosity.

* Edith Sitwell:My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.

* Michael Lipsey:If I say Vincent Van Gogh, do you think of 'Starry Night' or the bloody ear?

* Me, I see the sunflowers.

tricks, window, visits, real

 * Ruminating, reflecting, turning over in my mind the Jedi mind trick and 'Make the lie big, keep it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it'.

* Upping the window of my office so I can just barely see the bottom of the dancing wind socket and the rocks punctuated with dying weeds. No one can see into my world but I benefit from the fresh air.

* Early, early visits to food stores with empty aisles. Home for a proper fooding. Books in the sunshine.

* Another movie/life in which someone says, "Was any of it real?".