When James works a weekend day, they give him a day in the following week. His day off was today.

I'm at the time of year when I need to work off my leave. We're only allowed to bank 240 hours at the end of the year and I'll have over 380 when January 1 rolls around, even after taking a week's vacation. I try to take some of James' days off, but if he's going to the doctor on that day, which he usually has to do since he only gets one sick day a year, there aren't many of them. And there's no use in taking any time off after March since the weather is so wretchedly hot by that time.

This year there wasn't even time for that, since once the Recovery Act money came in we were "going like sixty" as they say in those old books I find on Munseys.com. By June we already had a fourth quarter workload.

I spent one day last week juggling numbers, and had originally intended to take this Friday off when this date came up, so I scheduled it instead.

And since we didn't get to go to Ellijay for the apple festival, we went today. It was sunny with a light tracing of cirrus clouds all over the sky, sunny enought that we both got an overexposure to sun. My cheeks look like strawberries.

But it was a lovely day. First we stopped by "Mr. Clean" to get the truck washed and oil changed. From there we hit the road, listening to old podcasts of "The Splendid Table."

Our big stop was at the Panorama Farm Market. We bought a peck of apples, an apple pie, a little bag of peanut brittle (yes, the peanuts predominate...LOL), some fruit only fruit spread (blackberry and cherry), barbecue-flavor apple butter, and goats' milk lotion and soap for the dry skin I get on my hands during the winter. We also hunted down, despite the bad GPS directions, something called Cowan's, a book and gift shop. I found the cutest bird book, all about chickadees, full of darling photos, and also a Jim Shore Christmas Nativity Angel. I hadn't seen this one before, and no wonder, as it is brand new. It's lovely; she's holding garland with a star in the middle, positioned directly over the Holy Family and a shepherd.

Between the farm market and the bookstore we also stopped at Ingles. Both Kroger and Publix have quit carrying Willow's favorite dog food, Lassie Natural Way, and we've tried several other foods, including the one I think made her sick a month or so back. I recently found out that Ingles still carries the Natural Way, but there's none left in the area. Sure enough they did have it, and we bought a large bag and two small. Should last her for a while, hopefully until we find a closer Ingles!

We also visited a farmstand at R&A Orchards and had lunch and bought some fresh apple bread.

Goodness, if Georgia had the color New Hampshire had, this ride would have been glorious, purple hills in the distance, and a ride along the Cartecay River with trees bowing over the water. It just hasn't been a good year for leaves down here; while there are a few pretty maples here and there, it's mostly like someone took a fall photo and turned down the saturation in a photo-editing software. And there are too many pine trees. Nevertheless, the countryside was pretty, especially the short ride along the river.

We were home in time for a simple supper and Jeopardy, before which I pulled down the Hallowe'en decorations on the porch. On to Thanksgiving!

Labels: food, shopping, travel

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