BOO!

 So today is Halloween.

My father took care of buying the candy for trick-or-treaters.

Number of trick-or-treaters we are ready for:  50.

Number of trick-or-treaters we actually will get:  0.

Happy Halloween!

Winter Weather Preview

Snow was in the forecast for overnight last night. It wasn't supposed to amount to anything.

I woke up a couple times during the night when nature called, but I forgot to look out the window when I came back in our bedroom.

When I looked outside this morning, there was no evidence of snow. I was not disappointed. A snow bunny, I am not.

But we didn't totally escape, because it was cold today. Mighty cold. I'm not ready for these low temperatures yet.

Still, I am thankful right now for a couple things: 1) No snow yet, and 2) our heated mattress pad!

Dad 538: Shady Deals

(Mom's windowshades were open tonight. Enjoy Dad's post! ~ Tracy)

 

Derf Here! Another cold pre-winter day in the Northeast (40° and rain). We are expecting snow tomorrow night. Could be a couple inches. Already the northern part of the state has had snow and pictures show Sugarloaf trails covered. If this keeps up it will be an early ski season!

 

Stopped up to see Mary Lou today in the rain, but her windows had the shades closed. Did try to look and see her but could not see well enough, so I came back home. Will check this evening to see her. Hope her shades are open.

 

Well, I'm ready to have the elections over. I hope my votes are winners, but it won't be the first time I lost. Hope for the best! Really tired of voting promos on radio and television. Even I know that all running for office lie most of the time. It's amazing how many running for office tell us things that even I know aren't true. Look at their record and vote on accomplishments, if any of them have any! GO VOTE!!

 

Until next time!

 

Toodle Pip!

 

Derf!

Nine Years

 Click HERE to see what happened nine years ago today!

A very Happy Birthday to Eli!

💗

Three of Nine

Congratulations to Amy Coney Barrett on being the newest Supreme Court Justice!

This means that President Trump has appointed three of the current Justices.

And I am now older than three of the nine Justices — the same three appointed by Trump.

I am feeling old.... 

😲

Where's Marilyn?

Both of our cats like to go "next-door" to my father's side of the house. Jerry especially enjoys breakfast-time visits; he always hopes my father will drop a piece of scrambled egg.

Marilyn blends in with a lot of our household features; she is like a "designer cat." Can you find her in the photo below, which is from one of her "next-door" visits? She is still making it easy for you! And, as you can see from her pose, she is a very trusting kitty. 😻

Saturday Schedule

This is what my usual Saturday looks like, but maybe not in this exact order (although breakfast is always in the morning 😉 ):

• Elliptical machine... followed by a shower, of course!
• Breakfast out with our breakfast buddies.
• Laundry (both mine and Dad's).
• Go with Dad for his afternoon window visit with Mom; try to get her on the phone in order to hear each other better.
• Get caught up on my checkbook and mail that I didn't get to during the week.
• Collect the upstairs trash.
• Collapse at end of day!

Today was a little different in that I had to fit in a few hours of "work" work, which I did from home.

Time to collapse!

Hibachi

Tonight Lew and I went out to eat with Matt, Emily, Eli, and Adam to celebrate a couple upcoming birthdays: Eli's on October 27 and Matt's on November 2.

Eli and Matt selected a restaurant with hibachi tables. Lew and I had never been, but they all had been a couple times before.

It was really fun. Our chef gave quite a culinary show! I'm especially glad he knew how to control the flames. I am sad to report that I didn't catch the piece of zucchini that the chef tossed toward my mouth. (I think Matt and Lew were the only successful catchers.)  I splurged and got filet mignon, which was quite delicious. The fried rice was yummy, too.

It was a lovely evening of good food and, more importantly, great company! 💗💗💗💗

Our Voting Plan Revised

Early last week I wrote a post that our voting plan was to go to the polls on election day.  If you read my father's post last night, then you saw that Lew and I voted yesterday. We already knew how we were going to vote, so we decided we might as well get it done. And it was very easy! We walked into town hall, entered the room where the early voting was being held, checked in, got our ballots, voted, turned our ballots in, and — voila! — we were out of there.

I am still going to watch the presidential debate tonight!

Dad 537: Visiting and Voting

(Lew and I went to town hall today and voted. Glad to have that done. Enjoy Dad's post! ~ Tracy)

 

Derf Here! Another foggy day in Scarborough. Almost a rainy day but it was more of a "sprinkley" day.

 

Today was an important day. Had an outdoor meeting under a tent with Mary Lou at the nursing home for 30 minutes. Still no contact. Time to open up. Can't wait for life to be back to normal.

 

Also tired of all the election garbage, but Spouse and I did vote today. (Spouse completed her absentee ballot during our visit.) I then returned ballots to town hall.

 

Short post today, so I'll see you next week. Hope I do a better post then.

 

That's it for today.

 

Until next time!

 

Toodle Pip!

 

Derf!

Pigeons!

Lew told me this is the first year he's seen pigeons hanging around his birdfeeders. The pigeons are too big to get on the feeders themselves, but they partake of the food that falls to the ground.

Below is a photo I took through our kitchen window this morning. There were a dozen pigeons feasting!

"Safe Reunions" Webinar

I left work early this afternoon so I could watch a webinar regarding "updated guidance on visitation for families with loved ones in long-term care facilities." Dad watched it, too. And although the webinar was specific to the State of Maine, Kim watched it out in Illinois.

Limited indoor visitation is going to be allowed as long as the county is in the right designation, which is based on the number of Covid-19 cases per 10,000 people in your county. Even so, the visits will be under the same constraints as the outdoor visits have been (scheduled, supervised, masks, social distance) with the addition of plexiglass between you and your loved one. So basically it's just like being in prison.

One of the presenters was an epidemiologist, and he stated, "Covid's not going away." He indicated there is a greater concern going into the winter, as well as a greater concern regarding the flu.

My takeaway from the webinar: There is no end to this in sight.

Let's pray for a miraculous disappearance of Covid-19. (I've been doing this from the start, but please join me!)

A Three-Shower Day

1.  It rained this morning, although it did clear up by the afternoon. The sun made a nice showing.

2.  After using the elliptical machine, "yours truly" always needs a shower!

3.  We had a baby shower at church this morning. The baby was born in early September, so she came to the shower with her mama. She got all sorts of cute little girl clothes and lots of diapers!

A New Mail Delivery Record

Today's mail arrived at our house at 8:42 PM.

Wow.

Maybe our delivery person has already turned her clocks back!

Dad 536: Senate Hearings

(Dad certainly has no opinions whatsoever, ha ha! I agree with him. Enjoy his post! ~ Tracy)

 

Derf Here! Enjoying a fantastic sunny afternoon here at temperatures in the 70s. A great "late summer" afternoon.

 

This week I have watched about all of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. As I watch, I have serious thoughts about how some of these elected officials got votes for a six-year membership in the Senate. I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of citizens that missed out when common sense and brains were being distributed.

 

My official results: The judge was the smartest person in the room. Secondly, I realize that if I'm in a room with many, many senators, I will definitely not be the most stupid person in the room. Right now I must stop watching a senator from the big island making the world know that she really should not be a member of Mensa. She would be better to shut up, then at least millions of citizens would not know she is a fool – but her speaking confirms it.

 

Until next time!

 

Toodle Pip!

 

Derf!

7:37 P.M.

MULTIPLE CHOICE: (Choose only one.)

The title of this post — 7:37 P.M. — represents the time for which of the following?

A)  Nutritionists announce that chocolate is really a vegetable, so eat as much of it as you want!

B)  Scarborough, Maine is named host city for the 2040 Summer Olympics.

C)  The sun comes out after a day of constant rain.

D)  Our mail is delivered.

Answer:
A?  Sadly, no.
B?  Ha, ha!
C?  It is almost 8:55 P.M. and it is still pouring out. (Plus it's dark by 7:37 P.M. anyway.)
D!  Lew then put his raincoat on and went out in the dark to get our mail.  Thank you, Lew!

Our Voting Plan

Election day is three weeks from tomorrow. It can't come a day too soon in my opinion! It will be nice for the political ads to be off the airwaves.

Lew and I discussed our plan for voting: Vote early and vote often! (Ha ha!)

Actually, we will vote in person on November 3rd. We even decided to ride together to the polling place first thing that morning. We'll come home afterward and then I'll head off to work.

Oh, and we'll be voting only once.

Got H2O?

I was all discombobulated Thursday evening and most of yesterday. My schedule got thrown off a bit because a water main broke near my workplace Thursday morning. The water district shut the water off at 2:00pm, so that meant no potty breaks after that! You can guess why I had to leave work a little earlier than normal....

Then early yesterday morning (Friday) I heard my cell phone do a little "ding-a-ling."  It was a text message from our H.R. person that we still didn't have water at work, so the office would be closed. That was all well and good except that I wanted to get the check run printed and mailed out. I got the "okay" to go in for a couple hours to get that done. Still, when you know you don't have access to a restroom.... 

I brought my laptop home with me, so I was able to work a few more hours yesterday knowing a bathroom was nearby....  Home, sweet home!

Dad 535: Debate Predictions

(Dad wrote this post around 4:00pm. The weather cooperated for his evening window visit and for my after-work window visit with Mom. Enjoy! ~ Tracy)

 

Derf Here! Another beautiful, fairly warm morning today. We had showers this afternoon, but probably no more showers this evening. The sun is sure shining brightly now.

 

My outdoor meeting with Mary Lou this morning was very successful. I'll visit her again this evening (through a window) if the rain doesn't return. Hope it stays dry.

 

I'm getting ready to watch the debate tonight between the current vice president and his November 3rd opponent. Don't expect it to be very lively or as loud and uncontrolled as the presidential debate of one week ago. I'll watch all the debates if they do have any more. Won't be surprised if they do not happen. Just saying!

 

I'll be glad when November 4th gets here. Will be back to normal, although probably still not visiting with loved ones in nursing homes. (It will be a year in 2021.) Let us open up the country now! I'm done!!

 

Until next time!

 

Toodle Pip!

 

Derf!

When All Else Fails....

When I stopped to wave to Mom on my way home from work last night, a series of events led to my learning that her call button wasn't working.  She would pull the string but it was not calling the nurse's station successfully. (I called the center today to make sure they would get it fixed for her.)

I mentioned this to my co-workers, and one of them told me a funny story about a relative.... An elderly grandmother was in a nursing home and had asked the staff twice to bring her a glass of water.  After a half hour had gone by without a water delivery, she called 9-1-1. The police called the nursing home and asked them to bring her a glass of water. From then on, she got what she wanted fairly quickly!  😊

Our Sunday Stroll

Lew and I took a brief, but lovely, walk yesterday afternoon. Below is a three-photo "summary" from our turn-around location....

We took a selfie. Lew held the camera and I touched the dot to take the picture. We are a good team!

 

We also took some scenery photos. Of those that Lew took, this one is his favorite:

 

And here's my favorite of those I took.  I call it "Clouds."

We sure do live in a beautiful area!

A Slim Chance

 A few days ago I ordered a package of 12 Neck Gaiter Face Mask Bandanas on Amazon. I liked the looks of them because they are solid colors. They are probably not the best for the virus protection, but I wanted something different for the winter.

The package arrived today. I grabbed one at random to try. It was bright green. Lew wanted to try one, too, so I handed him the bright neon yellow. (Not my color, ha ha!)

I pulled mine on and thought, "Uh oh." It was okay around my neck, but was really tight when I pulled it up on my face.

Lew said his fit fine. He was right. His mask was over twice as large as the one I had.

So I pulled out the remaining ten, which all happened to be of the larger size. That means I managed to randomly select the only one of the twelve that was of a different size.

There are at least two ways of looking at my feat:

1) Pro: Maybe I could win the lottery if I played, which I'm not about to start doing. 

2) Con: I probably would lose at Russian Roulette.

For those of you that are concerned about my not being able to wear the bright green mask, rest assured. The remaining colors are quite nice... except for the bright neon yellow. 😁

Still Recovering

Stayed up too late Tuesday night to watch the sparring match... er, the debate.

After the debate was over, it took quite a long time for me to go to sleep. Too much excitement, I guess.

When I am having trouble falling asleep, I read on my Kindle until my eyes start to slam shut. It usually works fairly quickly, but it didn't on Tuesday! Again, too much excitement.

Since I rarely remember what I've read right before falling asleep, I need to go back a few pages the next time I return to a book. It's a necessary hazard of my strategy.

Speaking of eyes starting to slam shut....

Good night!