I'm Almost On Time Today - LOL

I got to the bank on time, and got everything done in my very busy early morning. I apologize for running out of time yesterday. It's rare that I'll mess things up like that, especially on a non-swim day. But ... life happens - LOL. Today I at least have 15 minutes to post. 

Having that extra 15 minutes is SO important. 

It's winter dry now here in the Frozen Northlands. It's odd how winter can be so dry because we're in the snow belt, and we generally end up with a lot of moisture by the end of Spring. But, right now, we're fully into Autumn, and that's a drying out season. The trees shed their leaves (my yard is a carpet of chestnut brown in the front, and golden oak leaves in the back), and raking them becomes a priority. DH will have to start doing that, but he's so busy at the shop working on the inventory, etc., I don't know when/how he'll find the time. We've tried blowing them before, but we have a LOT of leaves - well more than 20 trees worth in the actual yard area, and more bordering the edges that we don't bother with. 

Most of our trees are maple trees - not sugar maples, just 
regular ones. But their Fall foliage is always spectacular - 
reds and golds - just stunning. Almost worth the work it 
takes to rake them up and get them into our compost pile. 

We've had a hard freeze now, so I'll have to check my herbs. Sometimes they can actually pass through a couple of hard frosts before dying down. If so, I'll get the last of the rosemary and thyme harvested and into the dehydrator. The last of the peppers got harvested and dried late last week. I'm very pleased with the crop I managed to get this year. Just wonderful - like sunshine in a container when I add some to my meals. 

I tend to powder my peppers instead of just grind them into 
flakes, but both are useable. It's lovely to have an assortment 
of them to take me through the snowy months. 

So, I'm off to the pool for my first swim of the week. I always look forward to being in the pool, even though it's total hell on my skin. Still, in my mind, it's well worth it. I need the workout, and I don't want to be on the treadmill six days a week. Plus, I have friends there that I've had for several years now (in some cases), and it's always a pleasure to catch up with them. So ... I'm out of here. I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow for a shopping, cooking and cleaning day. Be safe, be kind and Slava Ukraini. 

LJ Idol, Football and Clearing Leaves - My Sunday Had it All

The latest story for LJ Idol (and there are only SIX of us left in the competition) is due today. I sat down at my computer yesterday afternoon, after having thought about a million ways to run the prompt for the week (Fools Errand, if you're curious), and just let my fingers do their work. Then it was lots of proofreading and shaping, sharpening and cutting, adding and maneuvering, while listening to football on the TV behind me. Football is always a good background noise. If something really important happens, they'll always replay it so you're not really missing anything if you're not actively watching. 

I had no idea anyone needed instructions on how to 
watch NFL games, but I assume this was from a specific 
carrier, giving instructions on how to access the games 
on their bandwidth. Still, it's a good picture, isn't it? 

Speaking of football, both Minnesota and Denver won yesterday, so that pleased me. DH and I actually started the day out cleaning the last of the leaves out of the gutters. It's a horrid job, but with him filling the large 5-gallon bucket and my carrying them to our compost heap and bringing it back, it went well. It's never comfortable on the feet to be on the rungs of the ladder for that long, but my ladder once again came through in spades - one of the most useful ladders I've ever bought. We probably should have backed the truck out and brought out the extension ladder for the back gutter, but we were cold and exhausted by that point, so only did what we could reach with my ladder instead. 

These aren't our leaves - we mostly have Maple trees. But, this 
is pretty close to what our gutters looked like. Plus we had 
all of the different valleys in the roofline that had to be 
raked out with our roof snow removal shovel. It's a lot of 
work, and it's the final thing that has to be finished before 
the winter truly comes. Now we're ready for the snow. 

Hot tea can do wonderful things. I had been mulling my story for LJ Idol while we were working on the leaves (it's not that fascinating watching DH on a ladder piling leaves into an orange bucket after all). I was pulled this way and that, and finally decided that I would tackle it after I warmed up with a nice, hot cuppa (herbal tea - it's my go-to beverage). I hadn't decided on a direction to take the tale, but knew directions I wouldn't go. When I sat down at the computer, I only knew it had to be a journey, but the direction the words took were, as usual, a wonderful surprise. 

There's nothing much better than a steaming cup of tea 
and a writing challenge. It's one of the perfect combinations 
that make my daily slog of work and home worthwhile. 
I love exercising my brain into new areas, and Gary always 
seems to come through with prompts that really make me 
think. If I get voted out after this challenge, then so be 
it. It's been a wonderful season. But ... I'd certainly love 
to continue onward - LOL. 

There's something wonderful about writing to prompt. It makes my brain exercise in ways it hadn't contemplated before. It's one of the things I truly love/hate about LJ Idol. Gary comes up with the most unusual phrases or prompts, and somehow it's up to all of us to make magic happen at our keyboards. How wonderfully fun. The stories are due tonight and will go live tomorrow. I'll be sure to post a link for all of you and I hope that once again, I will merit your votes. We're down to six now, the air is thin and the peak beckons to us to bundle up, grab our ropes and pins, and head upwards into the final stretches. While I'm getting that exercise (you'd think my treadmill would have been enough this morning - LOL), I'm signing off and wishing all of you a wonderful Monday. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

The Leaves are Gone, Now Winter Can Visit (But She Can Take Her Sweet Time)

DH got busy with the leaves yesterday morning, and I joined him after I had cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast. He already had three piles along the street, and was working on more piles in the front yard. Our procedure for leaves is tarps - we take a pile, move it onto the tarp, add more piles if there is room, and then pull the tarp down to the steep slope where we've been depositing them for 20+ years. It helps to stabilize that slope, and it's out of the way. A good location. 

We had a LOT of leaves to rake and it took us several hours 
to finish things up from what DH had done on Saturday. 
Fortunately, although it was cool, the weather was perfect - 
no rain, no snow. Yippee! 

I think it took us about three hours total to get the leaves taken care of. I had to admire the garden while I was outside. My Lantana flower plants are still blooming, they're the only plant we have in the garden that are still giving us color. Such a delight. They won't survive the winter in our cold, but it's a joy to see them still giving us their all this late in the year. 

My Rosemary is actually good in Zones 4-8. We're in what's 
called "Zone 4 Hardy", yeah ... we get COLD and we get 
Winter. But we'll keep the pot close to the back patio door 
and see if it makes it through the winter. I do love my rosemary 
for cooking. 

The other things that are still growing are my herbs. my Rosemary and my Thyme. It's possible that the Rosemary might winter well if we move the pot to a protected place, so we'll do that. The Thyme won't survive our cold at all, but I'm enjoying the fact that they're still up and growing. I actually got quite a lot of herbs from them over the summer, put them into my dehydrator, and have jars of freshly dried herbs for my cooking. Happy me! 

We usually do a really good reduction on price for our 
After-Thanksgiving Day two-day sale. We hold it on 
Friday and Saturday. Then we focus on after Christmas for
the next sale event.  

It's two weeks until "Turkey Day" and then we dive into the Holiday season with our after-Thanksgiving Day sale weekend. I still have NO idea what we'll put on sale. I'm thinking maybe the cube shape of our Swarovski crystals, but in the past I've also done a straight percentage off the price of everything in the store. I might just do that for easy. I don't like having to do cash register gymnastics for items on sale vs items not on sale, when I'm super busy with customers. Easy is better (and more accurate). So, I'll bounce things off DH and Chickie and figure out what I want to do. I have newly purchased garland, so I'm bringing my staple gun to the shop so that I can put it up over the next few days. Since this is new garland, it doesn't already have the right lengths together, nor the wires to mount it to the cabinet fronts. I'll be starting from scratch with that aspect of the holiday decorating this year. But, hopefully, I won't have a floor full of sparkly shedding to sweep up after January 1st either. 

I'd very much appreciate your vote if you haven't already 
voted for this week's story. I'm in the final eight (actually 
the final seven since one more person has dropped out 
because of time conflicts with real life). I'd love to keep 
going with this group, and every vote is important. Links 
are in the paragraph below. 

Voting is open for my story at LJ Idol, and I'd really appreciate your vote (if you haven't already voted for this story). The link for voting is here https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=32233 and my story is here https://erulissedances.dreamwidth.org/1072926.html . Thanks for your vote in advance. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slave Ukraini! 

I Explored the Twin Cities Yesterday - An Experience Saved by Google Maps

 It's Saturday. What are your plans for the weekend? 

I know what I'll be doing - I'll be raking leaves on Sunday. NOT one of my favorite tasks. DH has let them pile up, and we're having one of our last nice weekends, so he'll be out there today and tomorrow, raking and I'll be expected to join in the "fun" tomorrow. I hope he gets the upper front yard done today, then we can work on the upper back yard tomorrow. I think he wants to load the leaves into the back of the pickup truck and haul them to the County yard waste recycling center. Whatever, it'll be a Sunday of hard labor, and somewhere in there he'll want to watch some football and I'll need to do a load of laundry. 

I'm not looking forward to raking the leaves. Up to me? I'd 
hire someone to do it. We have a LOT of trees, so there are 
a LOT of leaves. Ugh! 

Yesterday I was scheduled to see a new doctor - a step up from my standard doctor. He's a specialist in bone work. Since I have now been on Fosomax twice, and the bone scan results from my test earlier this year were disappointing, I'm moving up the scale to a specialist instead of my regular GP. I thought he was located at the clinic just north of my home. OOPS! I was seriously off base on that. 

I had never been to this location of Allina Health before. I guess 
I'll get used to going here if I need an injection every six months. 

Silly me, I didn't check my phone's calendar carefully enough. Instead of being a few short miles from the house, he was at a clinic completely on the other side of town in Coon Rapids (don't ask about city names in my area - they're varied, somewhat weird, and often not in English). It's all part of the greater Metropolitan area, but for me, a person from Denver where it's ALL Denver for miles and miles before getting to the suburbs, the little areas of local government that make up our Metro area is confusing. I had no idea how to get to the new clinic, and had less than an hour to get there. 

I had never used this feature of Google Maps 
before. It worked out REALLY well, and I 
arrived in plenty of time for my 8:50 am 
appointment. 

Fortunately, the receptionist at the wrong clinic was able to help me get Google directional maps on my phone (which makes sense - I use a Google phone), and show me how to use it. Voila! I now knew where I was going and how to get there. I was there in plenty of time. It was a large three-story building, so a major hub of my medical clinics. My new doctor was very nice, quite young (of course, everyone is young to someone of 70 years of age), and very thorough. I enjoyed both him and his assistant, Kate. They sent me down for labs, where I had to wait for 45 minutes before my name was called. The vampire assigned to me needed seven tubes of blood, but she was GOOD. No problems, no pain, and no mark. Results are in my in-box today. I'll take a look later this morning. 

So it was an eventful few hours, and I was really glad to get home. I suspect I'll be shifted over to injections every six months, and if that doesn't work, they'll have to do infusions. All to keep my bones from breaking apart. I'm not a fan of broken bones, so I'll manage to do whatever is needed. I'm out of here, have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini