Fall Is Here

LotsOJackOLanterns
I'll Know That Fall Is Here

Happy October to you! Wow, that got here fast. Last time I looked it was September, or so I thought. I've been keeping pretty busy I guess. It's been a fast past month, but today is nice and slow, and so it feels like a great day to sit down and chat with everybody. I've got a fresh cup of coffee (how about you?) so let's catch you up with the goings on around here. Where to start? Well, Finneas is a big part of the whirlwind these days, so he's as good a place as any.


It's hard to believe Finneas has lived here only five weeks or so. It feels like we've always had him! For the curious among you who have been asking for pictures I finally got a few loaded, check out the Pirate Crew slide show in The Gallery. He's a pretty energetic little guy, so getting him to sit still long enough to snap off a shot was a chore. I swear even when he's still, he's vibrating! LOL! And he's growing too. I think he's going to be a good sized cat, maybe even Scootch size. For those of you who never got a chance to meet Scootch when he was alive, let's just say he was a cat of some significance! Finn & Josie are not quite yet bosum buddies, but there are some definite signs of a kitty detente (so to speak). I do hear lots of multi-cat scampering about late at night, and a few times have watched them chase each other around the couch. That always seems to end though, eventually, with both of them racing in opposite directions head long into each other around a corner, and then they go vertical! LOL! It's pretty funny actually. I still hear the occasional hiss and see the occasional swat, but I think for the most part now we are through the worst of it and looking forward. The kitty transplant has been a success. I'm not getting quite as much sleep as I used to of course. LOL! Finn's latest discovery is The Joy of playing in the bathtub with a foil ball. His new hobby. He races around in there like a madman and crashes about. It is very noisy, but at least the entire house isn't torn apart in the process. I'm okay with that.

DreadPirateV
Let's see, what else? Ah, my friend V (aka, Lilian of The Netherlands!) I mentioned V a while back. We spend a lot of time emailing back and forth now, and it is a lot of fun. I still find it hard to believe that two people separated by some 26 years and thousands of miles can have so much in common, but we do. It is truly bizarre, but in a wonderful sort of way. LOL! Here, she did a piratey self-portrait of herself as The Dread Pirate V. I love it! Tolkien, Shakespeare, Pirates, Fairy Tales, music, movies, good coffee (or as she says in the Dutch ‘bakkie troost’, cup of comfort) cats, the list just seems to go on and on, and grows by the day. And it all started with a few emails back and forth on YouTube over a video and a song. The Universe truly is benevolent. Well, I'm sure you will all be hearing more about V in the months ahead. She returns to Utrecht in another month or so to start the first year of her residency for veterinary school. In two years time she will be joining a vet clinic or perhaps even opening her own. I'm trying to convince her to call it "The Tortuga Pet Clinic" and to fly the Jolly Roger. LOL! I told her if she did, I'd even come for a visit, sit out front on a rum barrel, and play my concertina for her clients.
ARRrrr!!!!
Pirate2 And yet she continues to talk to me. Amazing.

Oh! My friend
Doug sent me some great pictures a few days back. He continues to get out and about in the mountains around Mt. Shasta in northern California.
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MtShastaFall02

Beautiful stuff, and yet another reminder of the passing of the seasons. Fall has always been my favorite time of year. I love the crispness in the air and the colours of the leaves, the migration of the birds and the grey of the skies. Doug's pictures remind me too of all those years I lived in the Pacific Northwest. The scenery is just so beautiful out west, and everywhere you look you're reminded how lucky you are just to be there. It's pretty spectacular. Though there's really not as much fall colour to see out west as there is here in the Midwest. With all the hardwood trees we have here, fall is a pretty spectacular time of year here at home, and as I said, it's my favorite season of them all. Time for me to get some apple cider I think, maybe roast a hotdog or two, and start looking for that pumpkin!