Summer Sunset Sunday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

With apologies to Lynlee since it is not summer there!

Today is the last day of summer. I'm an autumn girl so am looking forward to the change of seasons although today, and the rest of this week, will be quite warm. If the rain really does dry up, I'm tempted to have dinner on the balcony. At the very least, we'll have dessert out there and watch the sunset.

What accomplishments did you manage over the summer? (I see Harmony has recovered enough to have the willpower to reclaim her life, even if her progress is slow.)

How are you preparing for the change of seasons? (I know Dee is packing to flee her winter!)

What is your favourite part of autumn?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Moving would be my biggest accomplishment of the summer.
Surviving it was another accomplishment!
Health recovering is my third accomplishment.
Loving the change in homes is my biggest relief!

To prepare for the season, I'm analyzing the clothing I have left and deciding what will work well for the new temperatures in my life. I'm used to a house at 65 but relatively draft free except on really cold winter days. The apartment will be 73 but I'm not sure what sort of drafts the uncovered windows will produce.

I'm also using this change in season to go through my summer clothing and blessing others with things I own that I can't see working for me anymore. Whether they aren't needed because I don't do yard work, or the style won't work even if I eventually fit into them, I'm slowly pruning things out.

My favourite part of autumn is the colours of the leaves but the crisp fall air (and relief from allergies) is a close second.

I'm up. I've tidied the bedroom, emptied the dishwasher, am having my tea and chocolate and ran a load of laundry (the last one for this week.)

Ds is back from work. He's too tired to even go cheer on his friends at the army run. So tired, he didn't have the energy to drive back to the house to sleep. So he'll sleep here. He doesn't want to join us for dinner even though it is one of his favourites. I'm guessing he doesn't feel very social and he doesn't know these people (and Anglican priest and her husband.)

I'm surprised at how many clergy I know and how many have visited here already! It makes sense except I still think of myself as painfully shy and clergy as pillars of the community so how is it that I have the nerve to even invite them?!

The sun is now out. I hope it holds for the day. The view is looking good right now, with just a hint of the foliage colours to come.

I need to *poof* and get working on dinner plans or sorting paperwork so I can stash and dash in an organized manner.

[DeeClutter]

Yes, Kathryn, I will be packing in earnest for the trip south -after today. We're all going to DS-A's house this afternoon for lunch. Don't have to take dd to the airport until about 4:30.

I don't know what happened on my computer, but every day for a year and a half I had to go to the control panel and disable the onboard mouse. Now for the last few days it isn't even there. Beats me. Nice not loosing posts though. For a long time I tried to find a way to permanently disable it. So perhaps I finally hit something to do that?

We all had the wedding last night. Was very nice (except I was experiencing a BS crash -not so good. Finally ate some crackers to counteract it, then ate to much dinner AND such an array of desserts! Unfortunately I had a couple. So of course my BS is up this morning. For one thing I had missed bringing my stronger diabetic med that I take in the evening. ) Unbeknownst to us, DS-A gave a beautiful blessing. Then later in the evening he heard on his fire pager -the wedding coordinator had tripped in a hole outside and he and the father of the bride (our fire chief) went outside and gave aid until the ambulance arrived. Ended up she had broken her leg (or ankle not sure which). Practically next door I guess the owner of the sprint car race track was hit (by a race car) and was unconscious and the 2nd ambulance that had come was dispatched to that scene. Glad I wasn't there! Praying he's going to be okay.

Had to get up during the night for a (semi -is there such a thing?) cramp in the right side of my leg. Battled that for some time. But otherwise I slept fairly well.

Have to get ready for church. Guess dd is not going with us. Which also means I have to come back here to pick her up. She wants time to spruce her MH, do her laundry, re-make her bed and pack a few things to take to FL with her. Church is until noon and our get-together is at 1. I'm taking salt potatoes so am thinking of preparing them to cook stage and take it to DS's on our way to church. We go right by their house.

Bet dgs9 slept last night. He was very shy at the wedding for a long time and then paired up with another young friend and he was doing dance moves. He either slept well or was very sore and he didn't even have anything to drink.

We were going to have get-together here today but it meant DDIL#2 bringing out a lot of stuff and all the kids. And it's supposed to rain. We're celebrating September birthdays. DGS turned 15 yesterday and DSGD was 15 on the 5th. DS-R's family went back home from the wedding last night so they're already within 5 miles of DS-A. Just makes better sense. Works for me -I won't have the party cleanup.

I'm off to s2s and get ready to leave in about 2 hours or little less actually.

[Nancy]

I am up it is a brisk 57* outside this morning. 94* is the high in our forecast. Hens & chicks have been fed.
Bs was way up so no breakfast for a while. Finished up 1st cup of black coffee.

I finished up the baby doll blanket last night and started a 2nd one. Great for stash busting.

Summer progress pruning & I am working on digging out volunteer plants I do not want along the fence. Getting a narrow walk way along some areas was needed as well. Chick proofing along the east fence line nearly done?

I love the cooler temps. Fall brings soups in the crock pot and time for knitting up warm long bigger projects. House needs painted, replace light switches and plugins, dryer element needs replaced up for fall projects here.

[Emptynester]

My niece posted pictures of the fall colors in SD on FB yesterday. I do miss the colors. Here the trees just turn beige and the leaves fall.

The best part of fall is seeing our friends come back from their summer travels. Each day sees another RV come back. Then we get to hear about where they went and all that happened. It is great.

DH is going to church today, but I'm not. It hurts to sit straight - I'm spoiled with my chair. I'm going to start rubbing the lotion into the scar even if the steri-strips aren't all off. The skin feels dry and pulling so I want to get it more pliable.

My heart goes out to our village boys, LO and KIC's DS. May tomorrow be better.

[Twins' Mom]

Haven't CUOPed-yet - I'll call it Surprise Sunday since I was called this morning about the burglar alarm at temple going off. They couldn't contact office mgr who is first to be called, so I told them to dispatch police and I would meet them there, even though my guess was that it was rabbi or member who somehow set it off. And yes, it was rabbi who set the alarm apparently while a member (doing HHD prep) was in the building. And the alarm was still going off when I got there as the member couldn't hear it so didn't know it was going off. I am not a happy camper - office mgr must change contact to new president (I was also called a couple of weeks ago when fire alarm went off but missed the call.) And rabbi must coordinate setting the alarm, and along the way we probably need to upgrade the alarm so it can be better heard. The member could have turned it off had he realized and he's also hard of hearing. I am really angry about this but will probably settle down.

On the home front, I hadn't even finished reading the paper altho was on the last ad that I read. (My form of OCD requires that the paper be read first in the a.m., thankfully not like Lucylee's dh who reads before going to bed! )

So I need to get the day started....
-finish reading the last ad of the paper
-walk ddogs
-email temple office mgr, new prez, rabbi, et al about issue w alarm this morning
-start the dishwasher (didn't run it last night)
-plan for today

I was exhausted last night - the genealogy seminar was good but in some ways like an extended advertisement for Ancestry.com, which was the major sponsor. I would really like to get this hobby moving again, lots of thoughts on this.

Watched first half of FL State/Clemson game that dh attended, too tired for more last night. Slept poorly - Moses picked up again with his night time wanting out frequently.

[Lady Maverick]

I'm home with LO, still working on the dratted bandage. last night he soaked for 3 hours in the tub. This morning he has already soaked 2 hours and the process continues. Making itty-bitty progress with another thread or 2,3,4 peeled off each hour. Can't wait until this process is just a memory.

When I woke up this morning I visited the hair colorist and got that overdue monthly task done.

I suspect my laptop has a Trojan or virus because occasionally the speakers will start playing an ad or music by itself. Even with no browsers opened or software running Over the past couple of days I have downloaded and ran about 1/2 dozen virus detectors and cleaners but none of them find anything wrong. I'm unsure what to do next.....do I believe the multiple cleaners/detectors....or do I go with my gut feeling? I have lost confidence in the security of this laptop and don't want to do any banking on it. But I have to do banking which means I'm opening up a big security risk if there is something running in the deep background. If I can't find the cause quickly, I need to make a decision soon - either....
** format the hard drive.....but I'm not sure I can restore to Windows 8.1....I might have to restore to Windows 8. And I'll loose all the desktop software I have loaded. I really don't like the format option. The time it takes to set up and configure again is more than I want to do.
** buy a new laptop. I don't like this option either because it takes soooo long to set up and configure to my liking.
The thing that really has me puzzled is I'm very cautious and don't visit weird sites. There is ALWAYS a virus detection software running and kept up-to-date. If it is a virus or trojan then where did it come from? If I can find it and remove it, that's great. But if I don't know how it got infected then how do I keep it from coming back and/or infecting a new laptop?

[Twins' Mom]

LM, I'm so sorry that LO's surgery was so extensive and you're having bandage issues. I think I reassured you when I told you about my ds' "second circumcision" which was clearly a lot less complicated than LO's. I'm glad he's able to see the benefits of the surgery, however!

I sent a fussy email about the alarm issue this morning. I finally was able to clarify what happened - member was in the building sorting prayer books for HHD while his wife was working in the garden. Rabbi must have been already there when they arrived, he spoke to the wife in the garden not knowing that her dh was in the building. So rabbi locked up, set the alarm and left without letting the wife know the alarm was set. The dh in the building didn't know alarm was on and set it off and because it's not loud at all, the two of them didn't even know alarm had been set off. Of course, the rabbi didn't respond to my text asking if he was at the temple or had been there, and the member wasn't answering his phone even after I got there and had shut the alarm off. I'm just so tired of being "responsible." So I outlined issue: need to find another contact person, we need to upgrade/modify alarm (which is quite old) so it's obvious when it has been tripped, and we need to communicate responsibility for alarm and use common sense as to when it is to be set.

Next up for me:
-clean up kitchen
-start a lol
-get 15 lbs of brisket started in oven
-outside - use round up on weeds
-pick up dog poop in yard

[Twins' Mom]

I am wishing I could find a genealogy forum for discussion of software and documentation issues. I've used Rootsmagic software for many years and I like it. OTOH, Ancestry is making it so easy to put one's info online and to link to the appropriate censi and Ancestry sources. OTOH, I really like keeping my data free of Ancestry's proprietary software and reach. OTOH, Ancestry's new DNA testing, alongside one's family tree make it easier to find cousins and connections. I'd like to have an online presence of my data so people can find me and my research. Right now I have my tree at Rootsweb's World Connect - most of the info that others have there is out of date and much is undocumented and the site is owned by Ancestry now anyway.

And......I've gotten bogged down in the perfectionism of citing full sources and because it takes time to learn and figure it out, I am tending to leave it undone instead of doing it wrong. And I have a stack of papers upstairs probably 8 inches high that I need to enter in my database and cite the sources.

And while I'm nattering about it, what about all that source data I've entered over the years and it's wrong? How would I ever make it all "right?" and will my perfectionism allow to leave it as is.

I read recently of someone completely re-entering his/her database and using that as an opportunity to examine each bit of evidence and documentation for additional information. While it sounds tempting, I don't think I want to get into that....

[Nancy]

We have success lites are working again now h. Did it 97% I handed tools pull with extra hand as needed on a wire flipped switches from the other floor basically was the helper.

I secured the wire to the fence to keep chicks in the back.