October begins!

Yes! It is October and the spooky season is here. The leaves are changing color like mad, and thank goodness my knee has heeled enough that I can start taking walks again so I can see the beautiful trees in our neighborhood. The color is subdued, compared to previous years -- some trees are just going from green to brown -- but some trees and bushes are still pretty. I also can't take very long walks yet, but I worked on it this week and managed to take one walk that was .85 mile. It will be a big deal when I can get to one full mile again, and then 1.5 miles and so on. I see the orthopedics person again on Tuesday.

I took last week's list seriously this week, and started in on several of my planned activities (including, of course, taking walks). For fall cooking, I made sweet potato black bean chili on Wednesday (there's still some in the fridge) and that was quite delicious. On Friday I made caramelized onion, apple, and goat cheese melts, and those were less successful. But I tried -- sweet potato and apple dishes, yum. I also made an apple cake with raisins and nuts (see photo) and molasses sugar cookies (I overbaked them and they're too crisp, but still delicious). 

This coming week, after we finish the apple cake, I think I will make Trader Joe's pumpkin bread (I got a box of the mix). And Rocket Boy requested the pesto pizza grilled cheese sandwiches for Friday, no more goat cheese. But I have to think of something for Monday and Wednesday. I'm getting into the rhythm of making two sizable meals each week, which provide leftovers the next day, and then something simple (like melts) on Fridays. Can I say it -- cooking is getting a little less onerous.

Last week I didn't cook on Monday because it was book group night (Rocket Boy fixed salmon for himself and Teen A). We read Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado and Lecia made some Brazilian treats to go with it. On Tuesday I went to the Faculty Tuesday concert at CU and it was very interesting -- percussion pieces by the new CU percussion specialist. You can't see it very well in the picture, but the stage was covered with marimbas, plus some drums. My favorite piece was the first one, "Itsuki Fantasy for Six Mallets" by Keiko Abe, which was played on a marimba that looked different from the others (over on the right, he explained it but I forget what was special about it). Watching someone hold six mallets in two hands and play beautiful music was kind of amazing. The next piece was "Prim" by Askell Masson and it was played entirely on the snare drum. Just this one guy, playing the snare drum. I find percussion instruments and music fascinating.

Next week it's going to be French chamber music, which definitely doesn't sound that interesting, but I will be there!

Of course, I also started my spooky reading this week. I have 16 books set aside for this purpose. Some are just mysteries, some are thrillers, some are actual ghost stories. Some are library books, some are from the Bookworm, some I've been collecting from here and there, and I had to order a few from Amazon. I've already read one and am deep into a second. I keep reminding myself that this month's reading is supposed to be FUN, I must not hurry along and try to read 16 books as fast as I can, I must take my time and ENJOY what I'm reading. 

I'm trying to start out with less scary books, but right now I'm reading James Ellroy's My Dark Places, which is kind of a memoir, and reading part 3 before bed last night meant that I couldn't fall asleep. That's the trouble with spooky books, although it's also what makes them fun.

I also signed us up for a month of Apple+ TV, so that I can watch the spooky new show, "Widow's Bay." We watched the first episode last night and hmm. It was OK. I don't think Rocket Boy was impressed. I didn't watch it tonight, but I might watch another episode tomorrow. I have four weeks to watch 10 episodes, so it's fine. 

I did buy a new vacuum cleaner, a Tineco Pet vacuum (there was more to the name than that, but I forget). I didn't take a picture of it. I bought it on Thursday, at Walmart, and on Friday I took it out of the box and turned it on, thinking it wouldn't come on because I'd need to charge it first, but it came on, so I did a little vacuuming. And it's so lightweight and easy to use, that I went on vacuuming for quite a while. This is definitely not a top of the line vacuum, but I think all vacuums are better than they used to be. I just vacuumed and vacuumed, picking up cat hair and kitty litter and spider webs and general dirt, and it was so wonderful. So I'm going to try to do a little vacuuming every weekday until I get the house back into better shape.

And I did some writing, but not very much, because I was spending so much time launching my other plans. So this week I hope to delve into the November novel more seriously. I think I've got the mystery figured out, at least enough to go on working, and I've got the organization straightened out, at least somewhat. We shall see how this week goes.

I realized that I totally forgot what October ALSO means -- the run-up to Election Day. So Rocket Boy is busy calling people to get them to help with "get out the vote" and we all got emails saying our ballots had been mailed. They should arrive sometime this week. Teen B got the message on Saturday, asked if his ballot had arrived yet, I said no, it was just mailed yesterday, and then he asked me if I could vote for him. NO, I said, that's illegal. I'm sure you'll be down here sometime between now and Election Day, probably multiple times, and we can fill it out then. 

Our ballots will be terribly complicated this year -- the election information guide that they send out has been described as similar to a phonebook in size. It's because Republicans can't win state offices in Colorado anymore, so instead they get propositions on the ballot to make our constitution more conservative. There are supposedly 11 propositions (out of 14) on the ballot from conservative organizations. Our dear next-door neighbor put a sign in her yard encouraging people to vote for the three anti-trans ones.

Sigh. We considered getting a counter-sign that would tell people NOT to vote for those propositions, but instead I just hung up our Pride flag again (it had fallen down) and put up our generic "Vote" sign. I don't think she realizes that our new tenants to the west of us are both trans.

Probably the goofiest thing that happened this week had to do with Teen A. I had been bugging Rocket Boy to look at his bank account for months (he has access to it, I don't, but I have access to Teen B's). We finally did, when he was out somewhere, and oh my. He has spent almost all of his $14,000 or whatever it was, his social security money, his graduation money, his recent refund from Metro, everything. Actually, it's not quite as bad as we first thought -- we thought he only had about $150 left, but he actually has about $600. So he'll be OK for another month or two. But what then? 

We realized that we really hadn't thought through whether we should give him any sort of an allowance in college. He needs gas money, because he's driving back and forth to Denver four times a week. That's a round trip of at least 54 miles, depending on the route he takes. Gas is now about $4.50/gallon. I'm not sure what kind of mileage the Prius V gets. I should probably calculate a reasonable amount to give him for gas (this could even come out of the college funds). 

But what about just running around money? He likes to go out to eat, in fact, he gets himself some kind of meal or snack almost every day. Is that something I should be paying for? Teen B, up in Fort Collins, is on a meal plan where he gets two "swipes" a day, two meals or snacks (we started out at three a day, but he said we should go down to two because he'll never eat three meals a day). He also has "ram cash" for extras, but I don't think he typically spends any of it. Teen A, of course, is living at home, so he could just eat at home, but he often disapproves of what I cook. It's very difficult to compare the two kids and very difficult to figure out what would be the right thing to do. I have been puzzling over this ever since we found out about Teen A's money.

Rocket Boy and I went to Denver to the Colorado History Museum (aka History Colorado) this afternoon, to see an exhibit of American history called "Moments That Made Us." It consisted of 50 artifacts of American history and explanatory pictures and text. It was very interesting, but also incredibly depressing, made even more so by the sad music that was playing in the background. Rocket Boy and I both kept thinking about how much DJT would hate the exhibit, because for every great thing described, it would also explain about how that great thing was damaging (or at least not helpful) to Black people, or Indians, or whoever. I didn't learn anything new, really -- maybe a little -- but our history is just so sad, in so many ways. We need to do better (not brush everything bad under the rug, as DJT would prefer to do).

The cats are still driving us crazy, with Baby Kitty's asthma getting worse (he sees the vet this week) and Sillers peeing on everything. Every morning I sniff the bedding (because she likes to climb up and sleep between us, after we fall asleep, and sometimes she pees). If it smells bad, I strip the bed as far down as I need to, and wash everything. If not, I just make the bed. Then I cover it with pee pads, and when I sit down on the bed to read, the cats join me, cuddled up together on a disposable pee bad (which is on top of a reusable pee pad. It's so annoying, and at the same time so stinking cute. I keep taking pictures of them. So darling. And so impossible. 

OK, here comes the first full week of October. Hope it's a good one!