It was quite warm yesterday, actually a little too warm. But after a rainy morning, the skies turned blue and it was quite lovely.
Driving home from running some errands, I passed one of the seemingly hundreds of apples orchards around here.
Apple trees and the mountains in the distance.
It’s a good 20 degrees cooler today and – yes – I will have to bring the porch plants in tonight. It’s going down to 31. I’ll do it again on Sunday and then it looks like there will be a stretch of days where they can stay outside. If the weather pattern doesn’t indicate a long stretch of freezing temperatures, why rob myself and others of seeing pretty flowers? Right?
The view from the hallway into the studio/office (I will never figure out what to call this space!) This cabinet serves as our linen cabinet. We got it for $20 at auction when we first moved in here. But, let’s face it, I could use a larger cabinet. Hmmmm. I’ll keep my eye out. The quilts are stacked on top – not very elegantly, I’m afraid. Most, but not all, of them were made by yours truly.
On the door leading into the studio/office: a chalkboard with a quote from Leonard Cohen, and my dad’s golf hat. It was hanging on a hat rack in the entrance hall of their condo. I like it here. It’s as if he’s guarding my space.
A big story today in Newsweek, by respected journalist Kurt Eichenwald: Why Vladimir Putin’s Russia is Backing Donald Trump. This is about as alarming as it gets.
Oh, except for the rogue faction in the FBI getting involved as well.
And Wikileaks and Julian Assange.
How can this election be any more insane?
The stress level in the Hill-Sparks household is through the roof. To be fair, the stress level is a little higher with me. I am obsessed with Twitter, DailyKos, Huffington Post, MSNBC. I can’t stop. I know my sister is just as obsessed. We talk about it all the time.
I need a break. Calgon, take me away!
Happy Friday.
Claudia, I’m so relieved to have voted but I know my stress level will be off the charts on Tue. It’s been so pretty here but we didn’t get much in the way of leaves changing colors. We are in a drought right now. I’m hoping for a drive in the country today. I need some nice quiet scenery!
We’re still in a drought up here as well. We’ve had some rain, but not nearly enough!
I love seeing your Dad’s hat hanging on the door to your studio/office – – it’s as if he could reach for that hat as he walks out the door for a walk with you and Don. Which I’m sure he does in spirit most days – smiling as he sees his girl enjoy the changing of the seasons and beauty of this earth.
PS The hatband on your Dad’s hat matches the frame of your chalkboard – now cool is that?!
Don’t think I wasn’t aware of that, Regina!
Yep, I’m there. 24/7. Continually on facebook, which I’m new to, but reassuring as I find many like-minded folks out there. Clinging to the sanity relayed in friends’ posts. Not sleeping. Stress eating. Crying at inopportune times. Glued to CNN. Not speaking to work colleagues who do more research on shoe and sheet sales than they do the issues of this election. Despairing of the hate out there. Praying that love is love is love is love wins.
Me too. I have the same impatience with those who don’t seem to understand what a big deal this election is. Makes me nuts!
I understand Your obsession with the election right; any thinking person is obsessed with it because so much is riding on the outcome.
Last night at my League of Women Voters Board Meeting we had to struggle to keep to the agenda because everyone was so worried and frustrated about the election. Many of us are experiencing sleep difficulties. Whichever way it goes, what will happen in the aftermath?
Yes, I’m frightened as well. Once we get through November 8th, then we have to worry about what follows!
As we’ve been saying all along, for months, this particular election is the worst ever. As Carolyn Marie states above, I am so concerned about the aftermath…
I am too. I almost cannot bear the tension, Vera!
Oh, if only Calgon could take us away! New York has the best apples and orchards…”Thousands of branches near you”. Missing our nearby orchard in NY and the weather where we could enjoy some hot apple cider.
I bet you are, Shanna!
Your cottage looks so comfy and lovely!
I’m like you – I can’t ignore everything happening. And I may be in the minority, but I have never seen Julian Assange as a hero …
In any event, have a lovely weekend.
I don’t see him as a hero at all. I think he’s got a grudge and is self-absorbed to a frightening degree. Another man, by the way, who has a rape charge against him.
For me it’s one of those days that say: Why did I wake up so early? But at least we rarely have bad weather here in Idaho OR perhaps it’s that I have the attitude of there is no bad weather, just different kinds of good weather. The only season I don’t look forward to is Fall. I have never liked orange and that’s the prominent color of Fall. I love winter because I can sit and watch the snow and the silence it brings.
Our first winter in Idaho we lived on a hill of about an acre and I sat at the huge bank of windows in my living room while curled up with a hot cocoa and watched the catalpa tree across the street denude itself. I watched them ALL fall until it was bare. One of the sweetest and most peaceful experiences I’ve ever had.
As for the space where you walk through, why not call it ‘promenade à travers’. Putting it in French gives it a bit of class. At lease, I think so.
I love that solution, Connie! But what to call the studio/office space?
I have to say that I have dug a hole and pulled it in. I can’t watch the news any longer. I read (just finished The German Girl, the story of the ship the St. Louis which carried Jewish people from Berlin to “safety” as they tried to escape, in 1939, the beginnings of the Holocaust. Sadly, the US, Canada, and Cuba turned the ship away only to send the majority of passengers back.) If I watch TV, I am embarrassed to say that the 2 Hallmark stations are showing Christmas movies, and I have watched several of those, simply to escape. Music is also on a lot. I have a cold, so I think I turned to the movies when I was in bed several afternoons this week. Yes, this election has pushed me in crazy directions. My new address appears to be Denial.
Can’t get there! I’m in the middle of watching, tweeting, etc. Can’t stop!
I’m still being the ostrich ever since I completed my absentee ballot….”la la la’ing I can’t hear you” as I tear the name and address off the political ads that are stuffing my mailbox daily. I have changed my husband’s office/music room to hold my knitting and the music (CDs and records….I don’t like listening to downloaded music), but I still call it his room.
He’s with you there, Wendy. And everywhere.
I just love that you have your Dad’s hat hanging up in your house. Just as though he was living there with you & Don, and could be needing it at any moment. That’s unbelievably sweet. Well, bittersweet really. I wish I’d thought to ask my Mom for one of my Dad’s. He had a flat tweed cap [that “newsboy” style] that he used to wear in the Winter [mostly] that I always thought looked so cute on him. I’d love to have that now.
PS – for your room there, I think you hit the nail on the head with “studio.” Or how about “workspace?” I like studio though… it connotes creativity. 🍁
I have lots of regrets like that. Why didn’t I ask for (fill in the blank). Ah, well. Thanks, Janet!
Love your dad’s hat….feels natural! It is unbelievable how stressed I feel…and like you said…there will probably be more stress after Nov. 8th! It’s like…there’s no place to hide!! All this moving business with my son, has at the very least, been a slight distraction from all that. But, after this weekend, my distraction will end! Enjoy these beautiful days as much as you can…that’s my only advice. I know that’s what I’m going to try and do! ;)
Me too. And I’m going to continue to sort and clean. Gives me something to do!
I fear that stress outside our own little worlds will be around far longer than after the next 4 days. I ended up in a very stressful, very loud argument on the phone last evening with a friend from HS . We reconnected about 18 years ago by phone and chat often. We always cheerfully discussed our opposing parties but last evening the ignorant and misinformed crap that came out of his mouth made me question any continuing relationship. We ended on a calmer note, but I believe he did not understand I’m not sure I want to continue this friendship. Ignorance and hatred have no place around me. I tossed and turned all night in dismay. That makes 2 folks in my world that I see in a whole new light.
Sadly this is so far from over.
I have to admit that I can’t have anyone in my immediate life who supports Trump. I won’t tolerate ignorance or hatred or conspiracy theories. Life’s too short and I want only hope and love around me.
I get it, I get it. I watch a lot of Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper these days. This is when I really miss Tim Russert.
I’ve comforted myself that my husband keeps doing the math and assuring me there’s no way DT can win.
But then I see the polls…some of which ‘they’ say are quite accurate…and hear the talking heads talking about ‘corruption’ (Hillary; the emails; ‘the latest’), saying Republicans, at the last minute, are ‘coming home’ (to the party).
Remember when sometime back you said, essentially, that you won’t breathe easier until after the election and the last vote is counted? I’m feeling that way now, too. I feel so nervous and on edge. This is affecting our health; all of us. I’ve been voting since I was age 18…it’s a LOT of years of voting for me now…and I can’t remember an election like this; ever. I can remember, in other elections, when I never liked either candidate very well…but I didn’t feel afraid and insecure like I do right now. And I hate feeling like this; hate it. Life is stressful enough.
I’m sure I’m going to be glued all afternoon and evening to the TV on Tuesday…like everybody. Not because it’s fun and exciting, but because I feel the entire course of my life could be affected by the outcome. I feel the security of our country is at stake; who knows what could happen with the wrong person ‘at the controls’, working with world leaders (or not) and making the big decisions that affect every facet of our lives here in America (I think this is why I’m not sleeping well, now that my headaches have lessened since that bad ‘spill’ I took in September…it wasn’t so much the headaches as the worry, with all this political stuff on my mind, which is clear to me now; I’ve talked to a lot of people and nobody is sleeping well, which I think is very telling, don’t you?).
I see my comment is not unique. I should have read your other reader comments first before I left my own. Several readers here discussed the sleep issues. Ironically, after I wrote my comment and went into the other room to watch TV, the program showed a clip of Hillary discussing the exact subject…that people she’s spoken to have said they are having stomach problems, sleep problems; she was acknowledging that the race to Tuesday is stressful.
Maybe my world is small but I actually don’t know of anyone who isn’t taking the election seriously. It seems to be the only thing anyone is talking about no matter where my day takes me…in lines at the store, strangers talking to strangers; same at doctor’s offices or at the bank, at a birthday party, etc.; it’s something I’d noticed before and remarked upon earlier. I don’t find anybody laughing this election off, even younger people. I have some distant cousins, mother (40s), dad (50s) and daughter (in her 20s) who are Republicans but horrified about DT and they told me they are hands-down, all three, voting for Hillary.
I’m sure if I was working outside the home, I’d be careful of political talk with co-workers…there used to be that old saying, ‘don’t discuss religion or politics’…but, gosh, I fell into a conversation with a neighbor yesterday (who I hadn’t spoken with in probably a year) and it quickly went into the women-groping thing and she echoed what too many are saying, about some of that stuff happening to her (and, in her case, it had happened at her place of worship where, as she said, you’d think you’d never have to worry about that sort of thing when all you were doing was cleaning up in the church kitchen after a potluck Sunday). If anything good has come out of these awful, awful political/news stories (DT), it’s that women have opened up and are talking about it, indignant and vowing to rise up against chauvinism and harassment (and DT) like never before although, truly, I naively thought we’d waged this battle so that maybe at least by the 90s, men (the un-evolved ones) had cleaned up their act (too much to hope for, obviously).
Agree!
I’m incredibly stressed. I woke up too early today and feel rather ragged. I’m watching MSNBC as I write this and I’m staying close to the news, when I’m not sorting and cleaning!
Hi Claudia, I so enjoy your blog. I am feeling everything you and your followers who have commented. Constantly checking the news, stress eating, scared to death of what will happen Tuesday and after. It gives me comfort to know I am not alone in how I feel and that there are people out there who despise that man as much as I do.. I keep praying for all to be ok….I can’t believe how much hate and ignorance is out there.. keep yourself busy and enjoy your weekend
I can’t believe it either. Voting from fear and ignorance and hate is never a good idea. Thank you, Corinne!
I cannot watch the news anymore. I bury myself in my books and enjoyable blogs on my computer. Soon, it will be over, and I am hopeful for all of the world that the results will be positive.
We all need an escape right now, Sandy!
Your Dad’s hat looks good there…like he just came home and tossed it on the hook…I think I am going to be nuts on Tuesday…I am not going to vote until later in the afternoon to avoid any craziness…then I might come home and bite all of my nails off…lol…
We’ve decided we’re going to eat some junk food and some apple pie on Tuesday night!