Fall Busyness

I spent most of last week cleaning and organizing the downstairs. I cleaned out the media closet, which is a small living room closet in the space under the stairs. I filled bags with videos which EJ later donated to Goodwill, along with other items. Some of the videos were favorite movies, but we no longer have a video player so I averted by eyes and put them in the bags.

I saw that the night-time temperatures were getting colder so I brought all the potted plants inside. I positioned them in front of various windows and then I spent several days repositioning them. They are large pots and heavy to lug around, but I have to make sure that plants that need more sunlight are put in places where they will get sunlight and I also have to leave some space for the cats on the wide window sills or they will lie on the plants. I had to put rocks in some pots to discourage the cats from lying in them. I also have to find the perfect place for my spider plant because for some reason the cats especially like to lie on it. Every autumn I bring a gorgeous spider plant inside and every spring I take a pathetic crushed spider plant outside on the porch to recover from cats. Some years I put the plant upstairs where the cats couldn’t get to it, but then I forget about it and it starts to slowly die of thirst. Last year I was able to put the plant in a place downstairs where the cats mostly left it alone. This year I brought in a peppermint plant, but I had to take it back outside because the cats were eating it. I think it’s related to catnip. If I remember, I will plant it in the yard before it gets too cold and hope it survives the winter. Mint plants seem to be very hardy. I only wanted it inside so I could have fresh mint instead of dried.

Little by little I unloaded the tenth and last load of firewood from the truck. I stacked most of it in the woodshed but also brought some into the house. EJ laughed at me that I was hinting for a fire, but although I love the wood stove, I really brought it inside because I couldn’t see unloading it from the truck and stacking it in the woodshed when I’ll just have to bring some in the house soon anyway. I figured I’d save me a step. The temperature has dropped into the 40s at night and a few nights it dipped into the 30s. Mostly our house has stayed very warm, but on the coldest night we did build a fire in the wood stove.

Late last week EJ came home sick from work. He is feeling better now, but JJ and I have been sniffling and sneezing a bit. I don’t feel too bad, but JJ seems to be feeling slightly worse.

Today I was uploading some pictures from my camera to the computer. I have my pictures divided into files and organized by year. I thought I had deleted all my pictures from 2014. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I was felt terrible, feeling as if I had lost the memories of the year. But them I found them. Whew. I immediately copied all the pictures into a cloud drive thing. At least, I think I did. I don’t really know how it all works.

When JJ was in the hospital last April, my friend had a bouquet of balloons tied to a little black and white stuffed cat toy. A few days ago, our black and white cat, Timmy, lay next to the stuffed toy. I thought it was so cute that I took a picture of them. (That is one of the pictures I had loaded off my camera.)

A couple of days ago both EJ and I spotted a leaf filled with rain or dew in the grass at the edge of the driveway. We thought it was so interesting that I took a picture:

Isn’t it cool?

Update: EJ said it was dew in the leaf and not rain. It sparkled in the sunlight so it caught our attention.