do you prefer cleared surfaces, can you hear me?

Put your house in order, make surfaces, clear drawers and closets get rid of things. Great advice for the coming months when cabin fever can undo the best of us.  Advice not taken here, however, and off I go to the thrift store bringing back a couple of things but mostly leaving stuff on the shelves. Not because it is not great, mind you, but because I must change my habit. Some things are useful- some are just too good to leave in the shop. I don't knit but had to have this exquisite merino hand dyed yarn, the colors, the softness, the fine,even  spin. Pretty sure i will find a use for this yarn even though it may be unconventional.  I may just hug it, it feels delicious. 

Generally I avoid the clear glass section. But there sat a cut crystal celery dish gathering prisms, shooting them all around. Hit my eye and landed in my basket. Jumped right in along with a tea strainer, silver plated at one time in its life , now worn thin.

The new fence has not detoured the animals, the deer are still in the yard , the raccoons  using it for their playground. The issue is -by a tree nearby the raccoons have started a latrine. Easy enough to clean up but the neighbor is fraught about it and was quoted by the city a $3,000.00 clean up. The two mothers with their children came this morning harmoniously- no  mature males...The neighbor, out on her deck ,taking photographic "evidence" of raccoons on our deck. So...I am expecting to get reported, fined, sent out to clean up after the raccoons and making the neighbor a happier person. 

She is the twin sister of our state senator so I am sure that  her photographic "evidence" will land squarely on my bank account- another reason to NOT live in a neighborhood of humans.  Still a small price to pay for the joy I get from my little family, and not nearly close to the price of having a dog  or a cat or a bag full of hamsters. 

We received a text from grandson in the morning asking us to meet him and his grandma at a cafe in Fairhaven at 5:30. We were on time but they were a no show.

-turns out that the text was from September 6th, and somehow got sent  this morning, Grandson in Seattle getting set up for Uni, Grandma ensconced in her house by the lake...Weird. We didn't take time to have a bite to eat , not our favorite cafe though it looks charming.  I was one of the original staff, with my friends,  when it first  launched nearly 41 years ago- of course it has changed , not for the better. 

It was a pleasant  little wander through Autumnal colors at dusk,  the changes in the area are startling, especially  when one has not wandered there for  a while. It is  geared more for tourism now than  for folks who live here, exorbitant rents, shops struggling.  No hardware store, no post office, nothing that sustains a community, just fluff.  All of the reasons that we initially moved from the Beach   to town  are no longer applicable. We sold our cabin on the beach , there is no going back, not that we would anyway.

That is that- I won't even bother mentioning national news, what is the point, we all are sorely aware...

I will ,however, address  a more local , pressing problem, hearing loss , and the problems surfacing as a consequence. Problematic for those suffering loss also problematic  for those not quite there yet.  Relationship with the world limits capacity to understand, somewhat isolates the sufferer and contributes too much to misunderstanding, mishearing, or hearing not at all- nodding as though engaged . Dennis got his "aids" at cost co. They only work well when he is plugged into blue tooth on his phone , so If I phone him he can hear me. I encourage him to go to a specialist audiologist but considering  his devotion to Cost Co that  suggestion seems to be an affront. Anyway, when people suffer loss of hearing the tendency to blame the world around them - "not  speaking loud enough" - "mumbling" -  results in getting mad at the world of people talking in a normal manner because  THEY can't hear them. Frustrating for everyone. Fix your problem- I say, reckon with  loss and limitation, there is help available. It is always something, mobility issues, hearing loss , vision difficulty, on goes the list. The difference being that if one is going blind, or has compromised mobility , there is no blaming the world and demanding that it step up to brighten lights and offer clear paths - Help and gadgets are there to aid. That is my rant of the day. And Yes, it costs a  BIG dollar but that is the way of the USA. This is where we live. 

Would rather be with Roy riding  under western skies on my cayuse.

 A fence , nicely made but totally unsuited for purpose.

 Sassy walker, from a bin. Raccoons will soon slack off in winter months going into semi hibernation, the deck will no longer provide. 

See ya! Wishing you well, unplug from ALL national/world news for a few days, gather your wits. Go for a wander, find a red leaf!

 Green square.