When I was still in bed, I heard the rain. It was a quiet rain but a constant rain. I fell back to sleep. When I woke up, the rain was pounding the roof. Poor Henry couldn’t wait. He ran outside during the worst of it. I gave him a bully stick as a reward when he came back inside. Henry has created a mystery. I found small pieces of chewed, decorative wood on the floor. I then walked through the dining room and the living room but couldn’t find any more chewed pieces, and I didn’t notice a spot where something should have stood. I need to keep hunting.

When I was a kid, our dog Duke ate canned dog food which was, in those days, mainly horse meat. I never gave it a second thought. It was just dog food to me. Fast forward to now. Henry eats food with no fillers. He eats healthier than I do. I can see the vegetables in each: the carrots, peas and potatoes. Gracie used to hate peas. She always managed to isolate them from the rest of her dinner. Henry eats everything. He does not have a discerning palate.

Today I have a few errands, necessary errands. I need cream for my coffee, and I need new library books. I’ve read three of the four I got last week. I’ve also read one I bought myself. My bedtime has shifted to the early hours, the wee hours, all the more time to read.

I think it was in college when I first started every day with coffee. My friends and I sat together in the canteen drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. We used to have a contest to see who could finish the crossword puzzle the fastest. If one of us had a class, another of us who had come in during the contest would take over the puzzle. Lording it all over the other puzzlers was the reward for being first. We did that well!

The mornings have no longer been just chilly. Of late they are downright cold. When I get the papers, I don’t stop anymore to admire the new day. I hurry inside to the warmth of the house, the smell of the coffee brewing and the taste of that first sip of coffee. My sweatshirt is necessary even in the house. I find as I get older I feel the cold more.

When I was a kid, I was oblivious to the cold. I remember sledding down our hill over and over, all day long. Clumps of snow stuck to my wool mittens. I used to shake the mittens to try to get rid of the clumps, but usually the mittens just fell off weighed down by those clumps but, not being deterred, I’d just put the mittens back on, clumps and all, and go down the hill again. By the time I went inside, my lips were sometimes blue from the cold. My fingers were numb. My feet were soaked from the snow which had fallen into my boots. My mother wouldn’t let us into the house so we had to slide down the snowy cellar stairs, go inside and take off all our wet clothes and hang them on the lines. When I was done, I’d hurry upstairs to put on my warm pajamas and slippers. The next day we’d start all over again by bundling ourselves in our now dry jackets, hats and mittens for another day on the hill.

I still have a wooden sled. I use it at Christmas time as an outside decoration. I cover it in lights and hang my old ice skates off the steering cross piece. It is a record, a picture, of my childhood winters, of sledding down the hill and skating at the swamp.

It will rain again tonight. We seem to have only a day or two in between rain storms. The last one was torrential, but I suppose I ought not to complain. Yesterday my sister said she already had 3 or 4 inches of snow and was expecting a total of at least 8. Lord, keep the rain coming!

This is from an earlier post. I don’t think I can do better.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I ended. This day became known as “Armistice Day.” In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Similarly, unknown soldiers had been buried in England at Westminster Abbey and at France at the Arc de Triomphe. All of these memorials took place on November 11th to commemorate the end of the “war to end all wars.”

In 1926, Congress resolved to officially call November 11th Armistice Day. Then in 1938, the day was named a national holiday. Soon afterwords war broke out in Europe and World War II began.

Soon after the end of World War II, a veteran of that war named Raymond Weeks organized “National Veterans Day” with a parade and festivities to honor all veterans. He chose to hold this on Armistice Day. Thus began annual observances of a day to honor all veterans not just the end of World War I. In 1954, Congress officially passed and President Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11 as Veteran’s Day. Due to his part in the creation of this national holiday, Raymond Weeks received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Reagan in November 1982.

In 1968, Congress changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. However, the significance of November 11 was such that the changed date never really got established. In 1978, Congress returned the observance of Veterans Day to its traditional date.

On Memorial Day, 1958, two unidentified soldiers were interred at Arlington National Cemetery having died in World War II and the Korean War. In 1984, an unknown soldier who died in the Vietnam War was placed next to the others; however, this last soldier was later exhumed, and he was identified as Air Force 1st Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie. His body was removed.

The unknown soldiers are symbolic of all Americans who gave their lives in all wars. To honor them, an Army honor guard keeps day and night vigil.

National ceremonies commemorating Veterans Day occur each year at the the memorial amphitheater built around the Tomb of the Unknowns. At 11 AM on November 11, a color guard representing all military services executes “Present Arms” at the tomb. Then the presidential wreath is laid upon the tomb. Finally, the bugler plays taps.

Each Veterans Day should be a time when Americans stop and remember the brave men and women who have risked their lives for the United States of America. As Dwight Eisenhower said, “…it is well for us to pause, to acknowledge our debt to those who paid so large a share of freedom’s price. As we stand here in grateful remembrance of the veterans’ contributions we renew our conviction of individual responsibility to live in ways that support the eternal truths upon which our Nation is founded, and from which flows all its strength and all its greatness.”

The weather today is cloudy, dark and damp. It poured so much last night that Henry wouldn’t go outside. I worried but he made it through the night without needing to go out; however, he did throw up, and I didn’t sense him jumping off the bed or hear him being sick. The poor baby!

When I checked the deck from the window, I noticed a few things gone awry. One of the feeders usually hanging off the deck was missing, a suet feeder had been stripped of its suet and was on the deck and the other suet feeder was all twisted around its hanger. Water had accumulated on two of the waterproof furniture covers. I went outside to put the deck aright. It is chilly out, and the deck has a cover of wet leaves so I went slowly so as not to slip. I collected the missing feeder from the ground and turned off the hose. I emptied the water from the covers and went to put the feeder back when I noticed the metal which keeps the feeder closed was all bent. A spawn of Satan must have been frustrated at not being able to get the seed so it tried to open the feeder by the metal hanger. The feeder now hangs crookedly on its hook. I need more mixed seed.

Last night I cooked a real meal. Usually I do what’s easy like cereal, crackers and cheese or a sandwich. Last night I dined on curry pilaf and chicken shawarma. The meat came from Trader Joe’s. Henry was hoping for some, but the food was too hotly seasoned for him. He had to make do with a piece of cheese. I have enough left over for dinner tonight.

In Ghana, most of the food I’d buy in a chop bar ( a hole in the wall restaurant) was so hot it sometimes burned my lips. I got used to some heat but not when it was lip burning. When I ate in, Thomas, my cook, never used hot pepper. Once he used cinnamon my mother had sent. He couldn’t read and had no idea what it was. The food was inedible.

Today is so ugly I doubt I’ll go out. I see a nap in my future.

The sun is in and out. It was bright when I woke up but is now hidden by clouds. The weather report is for rain this afternoon. When I went to get the papers, the wind was blowing leaves down the street. They sounded like raindrops.

My deck is bleak. The flower pots are gone and all the furniture is covered. The leaves too are gone, but the wind is blowing more of them off the trees onto the deck. Soon enough it will be covered again.

When I was a kid, the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving was boring. Every day was the same. I was caught in a kid’s rut: walk to school, wait in the schoolyard, go inside, do lessons, have lunch and recess, back to lessons, walk home, get into play clothes and maybe go outside a bit if it wasn’t too cold. I had to go back inside when the street lights came on and then I’d watch a little TV, eat dinner, watch more TV and then go to bed. If I had homework, it was sandwiched in before dinner. Back then I had very little homework, mostly spelling words and a work sheet or two, usually arithmetic. I had a good memory so the spelling words were easy to learn. The arithmetic was still easy, mostly problems to solve, and I had my fingers as backup.

Today is dump day. I always think of Gracie who loved the dump. Henry hasn’t yet come with me. I’m hoping he’ll get to love a ride the same way Gracie did. It will just take a bit of time and a huge amount of patience.

I’ve put out the basket filled with hats, gloves, scarves and mittens. My sandals are in the closet. I’ve started wearing socks, closed shoes and flannel shirts. I’m moving into winter.

Today isn’t as lovely as yesterday, but it is still a sweet autumn day. The sun is out. The sky is both blue and cloudy. It’s a warm day. The rain will return tomorrow.

My factotum is closing the deck which is so thick with oak leaves they covered my slippers yesterday when I went to fill the bird feeders. I kicked the leaves as I walked, a throwback from when I was a kid walking to school when the sidewalks were covered mostly in maple leaves. My landscaper said he is waiting this year until all the leaves and pine needles have fallen instead of clearing two or three times. My lawn has almost disappeared.

I went to the library on Monday and books have since absorbed my time. I finished one and am halfway through another. The librarian chose the four books and she chose well. A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier is my current book. It is on the table in front of me and tempts me to read just a page or two, but I know I’d never stop there so I won’t start reading until I finish here. I love finding books which capture my attention at the expense of  everything else.

When I was a kid, my mother used to yell at me and accuse me of ignoring her when I was reading, but I didn’t ignore her. I was so totally involved in my book I just didn’t hear her. When I’d tell her that, she’d scoff.

I have nothing on my to do list today. I actually did two loads of wash yesterday. The bags of laundry didn’t even sit in the hall for any time let alone the usual week or so. I brought  the laundry straight down to the cellar from upstairs. That’s like a new record for me. I also watered the plants, mopped the floor filled with Henry hair and filled all the bird feeders.

This morning I watched the deck and backyard from the kitchen window. The birds flew in and out of the feeders. Two red spawns of Satan chased each other up and down and around the biggest pine tree trunk. One grey squirrel walked on the deck rail looking for a vulnerable feeder hanging from the branches. He didn’t find one. That makes it 0-1 for the spawn of Satan!

I’m tired of dreary and dark. Maybe we should be calling this the rainy season instead of fall. Henry has left so many wet paw prints on my kitchen floor they look like decorations on the tiles. The only saving grace is the day is warm and will stay in the low 60’s today.

Last night when I was going to bed, I took off my socks and just left them on the floor by my slippers. This morning there was only one sock. I never doubted who took the other. I found it downstairs in the den. It was wet and slightly chewed.

The Halloween card my sister sent well before Halloween arrived yesterday. I have no idea where it has been. The top of the envelope was open. It looked as if it had been slit. The card is a great card. It is a pop-up of a witch driving a pumpkin carriage pulled by two black horses. The witch’s crop is a long bone with skeletal fingers at the end. A black cat is riding in the carriage. This is a keeper which will be saved in my new Halloween box.

I early voted. That seems anticlimatic now. I went to the town hall instead of the police station to vote and was one of about five people sitting and reading the ballot. Voting didn’t take long as I already knew my choices for each office and my responses to the ballot questions. I remember the first time I voted. It was the presidential election, the Nixon-Humphrey race, in 1968. Back then you had to be twenty-one to vote. My candidate didn’t win. During the mid-term elections in 1970, I requested an absentee ballot as I was in Ghana. The ballot came well after the election. I filled it out and sent it back anyway because I believed then as I do now that voting is both a responsibility and a privilege. I have never missed voting in any election, even for the local selectmen in my town. I am ever willing to castigate people who say they never vote, the same with sporadic voters. There is no valid excuse to choose not to exercise your franchise except maybe because you’re dead or comatose.

Sorry about my taking the last two days off. Henry and I needed a bit time to get used to a house without Maddie. I keep looking at her usual spots and find it strange she is not there. This hasn’t been the best of years with my having lost both Gracie and Maddie.

Henry started going out the dog door by himself, without any encouragement from me. I wondered how long that would take. Gracie figured it out in a day or two, but Henry kept wanting permission. Today he has gone out and come back in twice. That’s a huge milestone and makes me think he is finally feeling at home.

The weatherman said we didn’t need any more rain, but we’re getting it later today. Yesterday’s sun was mostly a tease. It may reappear later in the week, but it doesn’t carry all that much warmth.

When I was a kid, mornings this time of year were always dark and cold so my mother made sure we were bundled before we left the house. That meant layers. It also meant mittens and a hat and knee socks which unfailingly fell down and bunched at my ankles. I always had warm ankles. I wore pink longish underwear which went to just above my knees. The bottoms of my legs were always cold. School wasn’t all that far away, but in winter the walk seemed endless and the darkness felt filled with peril. At school, we stayed in the yard until the nun rang the bell then we’d hurry to get into lines class by class. Once inside it took a while to pull off the layers and try to fit all those clothes on a single hook in the cloak room. The mittens and hat went up my coat sleeves. The only layer I left on was my sweater. The classrooms with their long windows and high ceilings always seemed a bit chilly.

When I’d get home from school, I’d take off my uniform and put on my play clothes. We didn’t go out much in the winter afternoons because of the cold. We’d play and watch TV. I liked to read in my room until my shows came on. The Mickey Mouse Club and Superman were on in the late afternoon. My mother would be making dinner. I remember the windows in the kitchen got steamy from the food cooking.

I still wear layers. I like staying home in the warm house. I’m never without a book. I aways wear my play clothes.

Today is dreary but still warm. The wind comes and goes. Leaves are falling almost like snow. My deck is just about covered. My driveway is disappearing. It has started raining.

This is not a good animal day. Poor Henry has been sick. It started last night so I’m keeping an eye on him. My Maddie is not doing well. She wouldn’t eat today so I cooked hamburger for her. She wasn’t interested. I hope it is just one of those days. Cats can be intriguing.

It is a science fiction sort of day. I’ve been plowing through Netflix hoping to find a movie which grabs my imagination. Many of the offerings have Armageddon plots. Either we will be invaded by aliens bent on human destruction or a germ will decimate the human race. We are doomed.

When I was a kid, I read every science fiction novel in the library, the children’s side of the library. They were all in one bookcase which they shared with mysteries. The bookcase went from floor to almost ceiling. Those books were my favorites. I also read the folklore books. I thought of them as cousins to science fiction. Pecos Bill was my favorite. He had a lover named Slue-Foot Sue and once lassoed a tornado. I found Babe the Blue Ox strangely appealing. He turned blue from snow and was so huge “that 42 axe handles plus a plug of tobacco could fit between his eyes and it took a murder of crows a whole day to fly from one horn to the other.”

I’m going to stop here for now. I am going to take Maddie to the vets. She is having trouble walking.

If you had looked up perfect fall day in some odd dictionary, you’d have found a picture of yesterday. I was out for a few hours doing errands. It was warmish but not unseasonably warm. Color was the word of the day. The leaves have turned mostly yellow, but bright red bushes are sprinkled among the yellow, and they captured my attention. Pumpkins, carved and uncarved, sat on front steps. Brown leaves fluttered to the ground when any wind blew. They were strewn on the street. I went to the dump, and I went to Agway. I also went to the Christmas Tree Shop. I filled my trunk. I had a fun day.

Last night I had more trick or treaters than usual. They came in droves. The full size Hershey bars were a hit. More than a few held up the bars to show their parents. I got some applause.

My cleaning couple who have been coming to my house for close to fifteen years have loved all my dogs. Gracie was a favorite. They are working hard at getting Henry to like them. Right now all three of them have gone for a walk. I had to hide so Henry would go with them. He gets to explore.

Today is another lovely day, even warmer than yesterday. The breeze is strong at times but not chilling. I have to fill the bird feeders again. The birds are a hungry bunch. The other day I saw the biggest flock of turkeys in my neighbor’s year. The turkeys were munching on something. When they moved on, they blocked the road and had little concern for cars trying to get pass them. Turkeys are quite self-centered.

Yesterday I noticed that my snow globes had fallen off the shelf in their wooden crate display and were so dusty I couldn’t see what was inside the globes. I cleaned every one of them then moved on to clean more shelves and stacks of cookbooks. I felt possessed. I could have used an exorcist.

I find it hard to believe it is now November. Time passes so quickly I sometimes feel as if I’m holding on to it by its coat tails. I dare not let go.