Although it was Saturday, we were up to an alarm at 7:30, since we had to be out early. It went down to the 30s last night and it was hard to get out of a warm, toasty bed. Slept like a log in this chill. I don't think I sleep anywhere near as well in the summer, when I'm quite "sleep depraved."

Dressed for the weather this morning, in my Vermont sweatshirt, jeans, and my boot socks, which keep my feet toasty warm. I'm quite chuffed at getting to wear all this—every year (even as busy as I've been this year) summer seems to take longer to go by. Emerged with Tucker to a bright blue sky and a brisk walk, then came in for breakfast. As James finished up, I started packing stuff in the back of the truck, but waited for him for the last, awkward box with the MopVac sticking out of it.

Electronics recycling was much quicker this year, as they were sorting people right as you entered, rather than waiting for you to go through the gates where the employees were waiting, and electronics is always the shortest line, as odd as this sounds, as today they are also taking old clothing or offering mass paper shredding. Most of the people seem to be here to either have their papers shredded or to recycle clothes. A quick twist of the wrist, a return of the boxes, and like that, it was all done for the year. I am so happy to get that junk out of the garage. On the way home we stopped by Advance Auto Parts to get new bungee cords to hold down the trunk in the back of the truck (they literally rot away in the Georgia sun); we installed them once we arrived home. James packed up the truck with some models he was donating to the club auction, and he was off.

I "mounted up" as well, to buy milk and mandarin orange cups at Sam's Club. As always, came out with a lot more: slippers for James, fresh mandarins, two Christmas magazines, and two wonderful meat bargains: chicken drumsticks at 85 cents a pound, and some discount stew beef at $2.36 a pound. They had pork chops for $1.25/pound, but I passed as we had a lot of pork. On the way out, I gave a contribution to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and got a poppy for my car.

Since it was still chilly, I stowed the perishables in insulated bags and headed up to Town Center. I had a good coupon for JoAnn and wanted to make sure it was used. I stopped to take a photo of a gorgeous orange-leaved maple tree, and then was greeted with Christmas everywhere. JoAnn has a nice selection of plaques and other things this year, but very large pieces for larger homes than ours. I picked up a magnet sheet with my coupon and some golden candle bulbs. I'm running short on blue bulbs for the welcome candles in the front windows and think the golden ones look very pretty, like a real flame.

Stopped at Michael's, but they didn't have what I was looking for, so I just went on to Costco for gasoline. They are at $2.25⁹, which is mind-boggling.

On the way home I drove home through the battlefield park, golden with autumn and perfect for walking, surprised that I did not see more people out exercising. If I wasn't toting a trunk full of groceries I'd be tempted to stop and walk myself. Once home, I had my lunch, then washed the kitchen floor, which badly needed it. Looked outside and thought I should fill the bird feeders since the weather is going to be cold and then chill and rainy on Monday. They were finally dried out from the last rainstorm and I was able to do so, and brought fresh seed up from where I'd stored it in the garage. Then I thought I would hang up some suet. The suet cage was on the floor of the deck, but most of its hanging chain was stuck between the boards. I had to retrieve what I could with a pair of pliers and fix the links. When I went to hang it up on the existing double-strand thick cord that suspends the thistle seed holder, it fell out of my hands. I had to take off my shoes (because the back yard is still awash in mud), put on my dog walking shoes, go all the way outside and into the back yard, pick up the suet cage, bang the mud out of it, walk back in, get out of my dog walking shoes, put my regular shoes back on, and then go back on the deck.

The cord turned out to be rotted and broke in my hands. So I had to replace the existing cord and made up a second cord to hold the suet cage separately, take the stepladder outside to hang the cords, and finally rehang the thistle seed holder and hang the suet cage. All that just to feed the birds!

When James came home we were off to the West Cobb Diner for supper. Really surprised at the crowd, because we were much earlier than we usually arrive. But the turkey was worth it.

We finished up by completing the grocery shopping and returning home for Father Brown and the Britcoms.

Incidentally, today is our 28th wedding anniversary! I thank God for seeing another one.

Labels: anniversary, birds, events, food, shopping, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:51:00 PM

Comments:

Sending belated Happy Anniversary greetings.

# posted by  Karen : 2:38:00 PM

 

Congrats you guys! - From a longtime reader

# posted by  Anonymous : 9:36:00 PM

 

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