Mmmm, October

Today is beautiful! Seventy degrees, blue skies, crisp air. Well, I assume it's crisp - I'm inside all day, but still, it's super gorgeous out. Tomorrow will be even warmer - eighty degrees, but windy. Very October-like. I have an author signing tomorrow, but may walk the beasts later in the day. What's really wonderful about today is that over the last week or so, it's been cooler and stormy. Lots of wind, some rain, definitely overcast. Today has emerged bright and sparkling and all the leaves are changing. It's almost as if it happens overnight. One day it's all green everywhere and the next, it's a color riot. This is my favorite part of October. The trees in my yard are late bloomers. Literally. They both bloom late and also turn their leaves late. Not sure why, but I am always a few weeks behind everyone else. So while my neighbors have a yard full of fallen leaves, my tree is still stubbornly full of leaves. And not just full of leaves, but still green. It's a November tree I think.

So, I have three cats. They are barn cats, which means they were born of non-descript origins to another barn cat. I don't know what species of cat they are, only their colors. They love to be outside and I like not cleaning a litter box for most of the year. I put them out in March or April, whenever it stops freezing at night and I bring them in late October, early November - whenever it starts to freeze at night. As previously discussed, it has definitely NOT started to freeze at night. Not even close. However, my nosy, busy-body neighbor with the bleeding heart for animals - she put her hundred year old cat on dialysis - and she feeds possums and raccoons - you, know, the ones that then pilfer our garbage. Anyway, the busy body has now put 2 notes on my car asking me to bring my cats inside because the nights are so cold and they are meowing. They meow for attention crazy lady! And they are MY cats. The last thing I need is to bring them in before the last warm spell and have them shed all over everything because it's suddenly hot again for a week. Go worry about the chipmunks or something.

Also, I have a new houseguest. It's small and many-legged. Must have come in on the big aloe plant. It's a spider of course. But not just any spider. I was watching tv last night before I drug myself up to bed and the thing just crawled across my living room floor. Right out in the middle. I'm kind of a fan of spiders in the sense that I watch their webs all summer and I don't kill them because they eat other things that I like less, but I'm thinking I prefer them in the corners and underneath things. This one was ballsy. I poked it with a pen and it scurried back under the end table. But a little while later it came wandering out again. Had to shoo it with a kleenex. I didn't really want to squash it - clean-up, yuck! But I really didn't want to have to watch where it was all the time either. I prefer to just not see it. It scurried under the recliner. Did not come out in the middle again. I wonder what kind it was...got an email about the Brown Recluse with pictures of the flesh after someone got bit. I think I'll re-visit that and see if my guest is a nasty one or just a ballsy one.

Soon, I will have to box up all these books. I'm into the last hour of the conference/bookfair that I am selling books at. It's a great conference, but lugging the books is a chore. I'm so tired and achy. But I'm taking time off next week - gonna do nothing. I swear I am...