Hard freeze coming!

Brrr! Chilly fall day in North Carolina today. The chill was made even colder by the blowing wind. It reminded me of Kansas. Many of the leaves that were clinging to their trees gave it up today.

It would be nice to say that it was cozy and warm in the house but I can't say that as we have NO heat. It is not just a matter of not having turned the heat on yet. I mean we HAVE NO HEAT! Larry took out all the radiators and the boiler in preparation for the installation of central heat and air. WHAT WAS HE THINKING! Then the sale of the house fell through thus no $$$ for the heating/cooling system. We are currently heating the house with two space heaters - one in our bedroom which also helps heat the living room and one in the kitchen. We are wearing lots of layers of clothing.

Today was the first sighting of the "Leaf Suckers". That's what I call our local public works employees whose job it is to suck the raked leaves from the curbs with a huge vaccuum attached to a truck. Every year they hire new workers as it is a temporary job. It was obvious the driver was new as he worked twenty minutes trying to get the truck backed up to a small pile of leaves the other two workers had raked to the corner. He finally gave it up and drove around two blocks to come at it from a different direction. Typical of the "odd" behavior of the natives.

Speaking of odd behavior - Sunday Larry and I watched two guys each rolling two skinny tires with big rims. They had to navigate around the corner then up the hill next to our house. Larry looked at me and spoke the same thing I was thinking, "Do you think they stole them?" Imagine two cars sitting on their axles. One is the car from which the tires were taken, the other the car the which tires are going. If it hadn't looked so obvious, I would have followed them as I wanted to watch them manage the tires on the steep downhill slope of the next three blocks.

Larry and I got out today and voted. What a great thing this early voting! Next Tuesday we will not have to fight the crowds and just sit back and watch the results.

Today is Geof and Carolyn's anniversary. Happy Anniversary to them!

Cameron, one of our young neighbors, had to holler his daily reminder of how many days left until "Trick or Treat."

Darn! I lost my eBay bid on a lot of 32 aprons. There were some cool aprons there.

What's Cooking?
Today I made a batch of Oatmeal Refrigerator Cookies. They were a special request from Jartavious, another young neighbor. He wants some for his birthday tomorrow but I couldn't put nuts in them as nuts get stuck in the big hole he has in one of his molars. "No, thanks. I don't need to see it." Since the recipe makes two rolls, I put one roll in the fridge to bake tomorrow. The other roll went into the freezer for use at a later date. Maybe for Christmas cookie plates?

Dinner tonight was homemade cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Yummy, warm comfort food.

I'm carefully tending a sourdough starter. It has been fermenting since Sunday. This is my second attempt. The first attempt failed as the starter is supposed to be kept in a warm place. Kind of hard to do when the average temperature in my kitchen hovers somewhere around 62F. I put the starter on a top shelf in one of my cabinets and put Larry's shop light next to it. I'm anxious to make some sourdough bread.