We spent last night quietly, thank God. I left work an hour early and traffic was as bad at 2:30 p.m. as it usually is at 3:30. Amazing the way a kids' holiday can muck up adult matters. Even Spring Road was a mess.

Stopped at Publix on the way home with the idea of picking up some supper for the both of us so we wouldn't have to go out. I got James some chili and myself some chicken noodle soup. When I got home I took all the things off the porch, as well as the flags because of the strong winds predicted for tomorrow, then waited until as late as possible to take Tucker outside. When I got back James had called; he was already at Firehouse Subs picking up some supper. GMTA! We ate the sandwiches and left the soup until Sunday, and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and For Better or For Worse: The Good-for-Nothing, and then the usual Doctor Who on RetroTV. Even though we had our lights out, we had two doorbell rings, including one way after the time I would have shut the lights off anyway. They banged on the door, too, and we could hear the voices of the kids outside; it was "the big horses" as my mom used to call the teenagers who came around after the little kids had gotten their candy.

The temperature was dropping like a rock and with the fan pulling that nice cool air, we slept like a couple of rocks, too. I'd had to turn the heat on because it was already 65 in the house at bedtime, not that I would have cared, but I was worried about Snowy. I finally woke up about 8:15 to find it cloudy, the wind tossing the trees behind the house like a dog shakes a toy. I tried to go back to bed, but really...it was cold, it was windy...why wouldn't I want to be out in it? It was a Jo March type of day, not letting any chill stop you from having fun.

So out Tucker and I went. I felt the sting of something cold on my cheeks, but never actually saw any snowflakes. Found out later that there was snow up north, in varying degrees: a frosting up in North Georgia, but more snow over the Tennessee line in the Smokies, but for now we had a lovely brisk walk. The cold air felt so good to breathe! In the summer it's so hard to draw a breath.

We ate a quick breakfast, then cleaned out the car so we could put the rear seats forward to put James' Rollator inside along with the two boxes of books and DVDs we were taking to McKay's in Chattanooga. After getting gasoline we were on our way. Did our own leaf-peeping; although the colors aren't as strong down here, we did see a beautiful little clearing that was full of vivid scarlet and orange, along with a few distinctive trees. We listened to a "Splendid Table" and then most of "A Way With Words," and I had to fight the wind to keep the car on the road, as we are having gusts up to 40 mph. Every so often little wet pinpricks would appear on the windshield, and both of us swore we saw occasional snowflakes. The temperature was only about 41 at that point; if there was snow it melted as soon as it had contact with the window.

We reached McKay's about 12:30, turned in the boxes, and went about browsing. When I went back to pick up my trade in, they gave me nearly a full box of books back, but I still had $136 in credit! Those DVDs really added up. I'll take the rest of the books to 2nd and Charles, and what they don't want, I'll take to Goodwill. I paid for James' books as well as my own, and I still have $86 left of credit. Got three "Dear America" books (Tory girl, English girl in the West, and German girl immigrating to the US after Kristallnacht), one "Dear Canada" book, a William Safire English usage book, another linguistics book called Blooming English, a "Reminisce" compilation book called From Flappers to Flivvers, and, most wonderful, a "Reader's Digest" book called Yesterday's Britain. I also go the DVD Holidaze for $2. James got an F-15 book, some science fiction paperbacks, a book about extreme weather, and another about pilot stories.

I did only a cursory examination of history, nature, and science, since we were so hungry; I didn't even go upstairs to check out for Christmas CDs, but I guess I have enough. :-)

We found a place to eat very close to McKay's, the City Cafe Diner. All I can say is...wow. The portions were enormous; we both had open-face sandwiches, me roast beef and James meat loaf. We both took half of it home. We also had a cup of their chicken soup, which was savory and delicious and came with a bonus: nostalgia! When the waitress served it, it brought back so many memories! Instead of rice or just some sort of noodle in it, they had broken up spaghetti and used that for the noodles, just like my mom and my aunts used to do! We also got some onion rings as an appetizer: excellent! Plus we took home a big slice of "chocolate decadence" cake for dessert. The service was prompt and friendly as well.

Finally we drove over to the Hamilton Mall Barnes & Noble, nearly getting sideswiped by an idiot in a van in the process. I don't know why everyone else's Barnes & Nobles are better than any of the ones in Atlanta, except perhaps the Buckhead store—this place is huge, and there's a fantastic variety of books, with the magazine racks so crowded you can barely get them in and out. James got a lovely book of military aircraft paintings, many that look like photographs, with his remaining 20 percent off coupon, and I used my two on Jerry Ellis' Walking to Canterbury (he walks the route that the pilgrims used to take to Canterbury, as in The Canterbury Tales) and the new Christmas book Inventing Scrooge, plus the magazine "Christmas Cottage."

We left there just in time to get home before dark, listening to the rest of the first episode of "A Way With Words" and then a second episode as well. Took Tucker out for another walk and then just killed time until Doctor Who, in which the mysterious Missy was revealed (and yes, it was exactly who I thought it was, but I would have preferred the Radio Times not spoil it on Facebook, thank-you-very-much). So they created Danny just to kill him? Really?

Later on watched The Night That Panicked America (television movie from 1975 with Paul Shenar as Orson Welles). Lots of familiar faces in the film: Michael Constantine, John Ritter, Vic Morrow, and Casey Kasem. Following that I put on a Studio One production hosted by Edward R. Murrow, called "The Night America Trembled."

Sadly, poor Tucker ended the night literally "in the doghouse." He bounced around so much that my little stuffed cow that I have had for years that sits on the console...sigh...sat on the console...fell off. He tore off its eyes and chewed it up pretty badly.

Labels: books, Doctor Who, dogs, food, magazines, television, weather

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