Welcome, October

October at last! What a relief to be done with September. And what a relief to not be taking that terrible drug, Rybelsus, anymore. I took my last pill last Monday and that was a horrible, miserable day. By the end of it I had decided -- this pill isn't worth it. So I didn't take it on Tuesday. By the end of that day I was starting to feel better, and although it took a few more days to feel completely normal, I would say I do now. The pill stays in your system for about 5 weeks, so it's still there, I guess, a little bit. But I can't tell. 

I haven't told my doctor about all this yet. I am anticipating that I will have trouble explaining all the problems, but I will try. Before I do, I want to make an appointment to see a dietician, which was her other recommendation (so that I won't seem like a total slacker). I've found the dietician, but before I can make an appointment, I have to call the office to discuss insurance. Since I hate making phone calls, I've been putting this off. I hope to do it this week. I checked the dietician's schedule online and she has plenty of openings. I should be able to see her this month, once we get the insurance straightened out.

Be brave. Make the phone call. Let the spirit of October give you strength to do it.

OK, maybe that's a little weird. Just make the call. You can do it.

***

Supposedly this is THE weekend to see the fall color in the high country, but of course we didn't go. We need Rocket Boy for that. Down here in the flatlands the trees are just starting to turn and there will be pretty color all month. Last year there was an almost unbearably gorgeous tree a few blocks west of us that I want to be sure and see this year. Maybe in about two weeks. I'll try not to forget.

I did a funny thing this week. I've been less excited about yard work recently, even though it's cooler and therefore easier to be outside. I go out a few times a week, but I kind of have to force myself to do it. At compost pickup this week I only had 3 leaf bags plus the (half full) compost bin. 

But on one of my walks recently I noticed someone who had cut their iris leaves very short. Is that something I'm supposed to do? I wondered. So I googled it, and sure enough, when your iris leaves flop over (which ours did recently), it's time to trim them. I've never done this before, but we had ZERO iris blooms this year, so I thought maybe the irises would like to be trimmed. So I did it (and threw all the cut leaves in the compost bin). (They'd probably like to be divided too, but I think you're supposed to do that earlier in the year.)

One of the benefits (in addition to making me look like someone who knows what to do with her irises) is that the hen and chicks are easier to see. I like the hen and chicks. I never do anything for them, but each year they pop back up.

***

Friday was Sillers' 6th birthday, so I got her a cake at Safeway. Here she is, sampling the frosting. It was not a very good cake and there is still a lot left. Chocolate would have been better, but you can't give cats chocolate cake. (Yes, I gave both Sillers and Baby Kitty a little bit of cake.) After I shooed her away from the cake, I lit the candles and we sang happy birthday, but she just sat on the bench and wouldn't look at us (until I gave her some cake). 

It's strange to think that we've had these cats for almost three years. We got them right after Thanksgiving in 2020, two months after Chester died. They were 3 and 1. Now Sillers is 6 and Baby Kitty will be 4 in November.

We only had Chester for two years before he died. I still miss him. Every time I refer to one of our current cats as "Fluff," I think of Chester, who I usually called "Mr. Fluffy." I feel guilty using one of his names to refer to another cat. Of course, Rocket Boy routinely calls Baby Kitty, Chester -- because they are/were both white-ish cats.

***

The other special occasion this week was Teen B's concert yesterday afternoon. This was the one they call the "Showcase," because all the musical groups at the high school perform. They start in the auditorium with some of the bands and orchestras, then everyone moves to the courtyard (see photo) for the jazz combos and the choirs, and then we go back inside to finish off with the rest of the bands and orchestras. 

It was a beautiful day for it, the music was wonderful, and it seemed to me that there were more kids overall than last year. Maybe the damage to the music program from the pandemic is receding -- although it seems to me that it shouldn't be, yet. My kids were in 6th grade when the schools shut down, and they'd been playing their instruments for a year and a half. When instrumental music started up again, a year and a half later, many kids did not continue (one of mine did, one didn't). The current 9th graders would have been halfway through 5th grade when things shut down -- by 7th grade I would think very few of them would still be thinking about playing that instrument they were just beginning to learn when things shut down. But next year's 9th grade class might be the worst, because that'll be kids who missed 5th grade altogether -- when would they start playing an instrument? You don't usually start in middle school. I don't know how that worked. Well, we'll see next year.

***

It's the first day of the month, so I feel as though I should be making plans. It's also the first day of the last quarter of the year, ditto. And fall started only about a week ago.

OK, plans.

1. Yardwork is winding down, but I should try to keep up with it until the leaves are done falling (or the snow starts in earnest). It should be much easier to rake leaves now that I've cleared the pathways. And what about my plan to hire a tree-trimmer, hmm? Maybe make a few phone calls?
   
2. I want to go back to my novel. I had planned to work on editing it all summer... well, that didn't happen. I've started creeping toward it again, looking at supplemental material, thinking about it. It's set in October and it would be nice to finish it in October. Then I could move on to the next one in the series, lol. I think that if reorganizing it from scratch seems too difficult, I should just let it go. It doesn't have to be perfect. I'll think about that.
   
3. I haven't had any luck re-starting my project to re-organize our files. Well, that's not true -- I worked on them for 15 minutes one day. It was very stressful. What I need to do is spend some time setting up a list of small tasks to work on, so that the whole thing doesn't look so awful and scary. 
4. Cooking, cleaning, all that. Just keep working along. No big deal.
   
5. Halloween: at some point I should get out the decorations (if I can reach them, in the garage -- not sure about that). I could bring out the candy dish and fill it with candy, but then the boys and I will EAT the candy... hmm. I've decided to intersperse my serious reading this month with spooky books, and I already have the first two added to the pile.
6. I want to keep going for my daily (or near-daily) walks. Maybe I can try some different streets, so as to see different pretty trees.
    

OK, good enough. I'm actually afraid to plan anything more ambitious than this. My depression hasn't completely lifted -- it was replaced by the miserable fog of the drug last week, but this week my usual depression came back, like an old friend you don't really like but put up with because, well, you just do.

I was hoping Rocket Boy could come home for a while, but Congress passed a continuing resolution. It's for the best. Still, it's nice having him here in the fall. We could go see fall color...

Oh well. 

I read an article this week about how this is supposed to be a Super El Nino year. That could mean a lot of snow, although since Colorado is right in the middle of north and south, I guess it could go either way. One scientist was saying, oh yeah, check your snow shovels and your ice melt supply, and the other scientist was saying, well, could be this, could be that.

If I had a vote, I would vote no on the heavy snow. It's not the snow that bothers me so much, it's the cloudy days. But I'll manage, whatever we get.

***

Now it's past 10 pm and I should finish this up. It was a busy day, not much fun. We went to Starbucks, I did laundry and put away the clean dishes. I did Language Arts homework with Teen B, Language Arts homework with Teen A, World History homework with Teen B, and science homework with Teen A. Then I drove with Teen B and drove with Teen A. Then I took a walk. Then I put away the laundry. I don't make dinner on Sunday nights, so I had to argue with Teen B about that. He never likes what I make for dinner, but he likes to have the opportunity to not like it.

Rocket Boy called. He had ANOTHER fever this weekend, after just having one a week ago. He's not sure this one was cellulitis, but he said his leg is red and painful and he thinks he was hallucinating last night so... He said, shakily, "I'm glad we made that will."

I said take care of yourself, go to the doctor... I hate having him so far away and all this nonsense going on. But what can I do?

Now Teen A and I have taken our showers and Teen B is taking his. I have fed the cats. All that's left is putting kids to bed and doing a few dishes. The day's almost over. I'm tired.

Hope it's a good week. And a good month.