Why, hello there, October. Nice to see you could finally make it.
Yesterday we enjoyed a chilly eastern breeze, which by evening was expected to pack a bit more of a wallop — say, 30-40 mph with gusts to 55, plus rain — and with any luck at all this seasonal weather will strip our pines of their remaining brown needles.
On Thursday I filled three 39-gallon bags with downed needles from the last blustery day after a friend complained that she needed 4WD to scale our driveway with a load of product for Herself’s eBay sideline. The bags filled our trash bin to overflowing with three days before pickup. I had to pull one back out to shoehorn a sack of kitchen garbage redolent of jambalaya fixins into the sonofabitch. The raccoons will rejoice.
Not so the deer, who have eaten all the class foliage in the back yard. They’ll have to settle for silverleaf nightshade going forward or start mowing the lawn.
But yeah, rain. I can’t remember when last it rained. Mid-September, maybe? That’s the most recent mention I can find in the training log. I described it as “a short, sharp downpour” that I just beat home at the end of a 25-mile ride.
This latest blessing from heaven started coming down around bedtime last night and it hasn’t let up yet. We might see a quarter inch before the second cup of joe, which, yay, etc.
I can almost accept that it’s 45° outside, and that the sun doesn’t show its face until breakfast is a fading memory, and that I may be forced to start wearing pants in the morning.
No, not that. Not yet, goddamnit. It’s not even Halloween, f’chrissakes.
Mad Blog Media 
I am wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt today. It was 46 degrees this morning when we terrorized the hood with the Duffinator. Next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday it will be 90 degrees for a high after 70 today. I’m getting climate change whiplash! By the way, there is a new series on PBS called “Weathered.” Each episode is about 25 minutes long. Excellent stuff.
Paddy my lad, I was wearing shorts and my Marx Brothers T-shirt (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Pinko, a.k.a. Karl) when we dropped off our ballots today.
We threw the rascals out. You’re welcome.
Don’t forget Zeppo. He seemed to be the calmest one of the bunch
We voted on October 9th which was first day of early voting in Aridzona.
Man, the turnout here was nuts. Lousy weather, not at all warm, and people were lined up out the door, down the sidewalk, and around the corner. Good thing? Bad thing? Guess we’ll find out. …
Getting buckets of rain up here. Had a nonstop light show about 1 a.m., too. The new rain barrel out front of the house is overflowing, along with the double barrels on the north side (double rain barrels, that is). Coulda used that liquid manna from heaven a few weeks ago.
Buckets of Rain?
Evening news tonight had reports on 5″ of rain in 6 hours in your state with cop cars getting caught in flash floods. I hope your area was outside the deluge.
Thanks, Hoss. Yeah, that was a real bad deal down at Roswell. Our local paper didn’t have a word on it, naturally. We had to get the news from The New York Times. One of the reporters is based in London. Sigh.
It was in the People’s Daily up here, but barely.
Man, the Urinal really intercoursed the penguin on that one. And then today they send out the daily newsletter with this gem:
Y’gotta love that “Good morning!” salutation before the body count.