We were chatting this morning, reflecting on how quickly all the trees around here have become bare. No leaves. The only trees that still have leaves seem to be the oak trees and with today’s endless wind, that might not be for long. Increasingly, autumn and spring seem to have a shorter span of time than winter and summer. Spring is often late with summer coming too early. Winter seems to drag on forever. But spring and fall? Blips on the horizon.

Anyway, we have a wind advisory today and you know how much I like those. In fact, there’s a snow squall going on at the moment. All of the porch plants are still in the house since it’s going down to freezing tonight and tomorrow night. I’d give up the ghost, but the next 10 days or more after that are predicted to have warmer nighttime temperatures. So, even though pots of plants everywhere are driving me a wee bit nuts, it’s worth it to hang on to them for another week or two weeks.

This is what the windows that came with the dollhouse look like. Not my cup of tea.

Today I’ll do some more sanding on the door and maybe I’ll be able to start painting it. Quite frankly, there’s a lot that needs to be done around the house so if I want to keep busy, and I do, I have my pick of chores.

We started to watch the special coverage on MSNBC last night, with Joy, Rachel, Brian, and Nicolle but it was too much for us. Steve Kornacki, the guy that does all the polling charts, etc., is just too hyped up. He went off on all of the ‘what ifs’ – based on only one poll, mind you – and that’s just the kind of thing we don’t want to see. As Rachel says, “I don’t know who is going to win. And neither do you.” Yet, Steve is making his frenetic predictions, touching one state and turning it red, then touching it again and turning it blue and it only serves to make everyone nervous. Also, as someone who has cast shows, the rolled up sleeves and harried look is a bit too central casting. I’m sure he’s a nice guy but frankly, I’d give anything for someone who didn’t concoct all sorts of scenarios, and was instead, calm and clear headed. Basically, we watched for five minutes and turned it off. That leaves us wondering just where and when we will watch on Tuesday night. I don’t need or want hype. There’s enough of that already.

Okay, my friends. I’m off to keep myself busy and do maybe my last round of text banking this afternoon.

Stay calm. Stay grounded. Sending my love to everyone.

And stay safe.

Happy Monday.

A darkish shot, taken this morning up in the office. The light doesn’t really flood this room until the afternoon.

No, the door hasn’t been attached. Another problem with this kind of dollhouse is that the door doesn’t quite fit the curved opening – I’ve had to add wood putty, I’ve had to sand it, and now, since I’ve added an interior wood floor, I have to sand the bottom of the door to make it fit. Every day, like clockwork, I go upstairs and sand a little. But I don’t have a lot of patience for it. Hopefully, today will be the day when it suddenly fits and I can go about painting the exterior and interior of the door, as well as the parts of the frame.

I had a restless night which was not helped by the time change. Crap, I hate these time changes. They throw me off for at least a week. When Don and I came downstairs this morning, the clock on the cable box said 4:30 am. The other clocks said 5:30, of course, but that 4:30 is going to extract a price.

Sigh.

I cut my hair almost all by myself yesterday. I was so sick of the excess length and my split ends that I did some research online and watched several videos that showed how to cut your long hair by yourself. When I brought it up to Don, he seemed relieved that he didn’t have to do much. (I had also ordered good hair cutting scissors a week ago, so I was ready.) While Don was out running an errand, I went for it. This method isn’t completely foolproof and usually the hair that falls down your back needs a little evening out, but for the most part it looked quite good. When Don came back, I had him trim any hair that was a bit too long or uneven. Voila! I’m quite proud of myself. I think I took about 2½ inches off. I’d like to take off even more, but I wanted to err on the side of caution this first time around.

That’s it, my friends. We’re doing our best to lay low, stay away from anything but essential news, and not lose our minds in this run-up to Election Day. I hope you are, too.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

You can see the frost on the ground and on the shed roof through the window. It got very cold last night. And it will tonight, as well. All the porch plants are in the house, which makes for a crowded floor by the front door and by the dollhouse here in the den. There’s one more very cold night coming up next week, but then it will stay in the 40s for a while. So I can’t let the plants die just yet. It’s not in me.

For the first time in several days, the sun is shining. Don and I were chatting this morning and we both acknowledged that it makes for a real change in our moods. Even though it’s freezing out there at the moment, it’s sunny. I’ll take it.

My goal for this weekend is to stay away from the news as much as possible. I texted for several hours yesterday and I may do some more of that this weekend. But listening to endless speculation about what might happen on Tuesday is, in the end, not very helpful after you’ve heard it the first time. I’m going to clean, listen to music, work upstairs in the office/studio, finish my book – the kind of task on which I can focus and lose myself.

I’ve been rereading Still Life, Louise Penny’s first book in her series. It’s like spending time with an old friend. Meeting Armand Gamache for the first time as he meets the inhabitants of Three Pines for the first time is delicious. The perfect books for me during all of this insanity. I may just reread all of them in order. We’ll see.

My needs are simple. I ordered new underwear, more socks, and  new pair of flannel pajamas and they all arrived in Thursday’s mail. I’m set. Strange, isn’t it, how new undies, socks, and pajamas can make one so happy?

We were saddened to hear of the death of Sean Connery. There is and will never be anyone like him. Rest in Peace.

Happy Birthday to my nephew, Dave, (Meredith’s son) and to my brother-in-law, Ron. Both of them Halloween babies.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.