This morning is a delight, warm and sunny. It will be 71°, a bit of late summer in October. The breeze is ever so slight. Only a few leaves still have their color. The oak leaves have curled and turned brown. The bogs have been flooded and the cranberries harvested. Halloween decorations and political signs vie for lawn space. Inflated pumpkins and black cats are popular this year. My witch still decorates the front door. A small sugar pumpkin is on a front step. This time of year is a wonder filled color and creatures of the night.

The dogs, especially Nala, love this weather. She lies in the same spot outside on the grass in the sun. Henry runs around then comes in for his nap. We, in this house, are all creatures of habit.

When I was a kid, the fall season meant playing outside after school in the late afternoons. It meant going inside early as the days got shorter. The afternoon chill meant a sweatshirt or a sweater. There wasn’t enough time to go afar so I always stayed around the neighborhood. I remember going inside and watching TV until supper. The Mickey Mouse Club was on every afternoon. I still can sing the opening and closing. I remember each day of the week was a special day. Friday was Talent Round-up Day. I think I remember that day the best because the Mouseketeer’s rode fake horses and wore cowboy hats instead of ears.

When it came time to carve pumpkins, my mother covered the kitchen table with newspaper. My favorite part about carving pumpkins was the reaching inside and pulling out the seeds and the guts. We’d hold the guts in our hands letting some strings hang down, and we’d make monster noises. It was perfectly disgusting which made it even better. My pumpkin carving was never all that original except I always carved teeth in the pumpkin’s grin. Every night we candle lit the carved pumpkins on the front steps.

The morning is chilly. My house is chilly. I’ve turned on the heat for a while and put on a flannel cover. Earlier I woke up and noticed Henry was not on the bed. I got worried so I jumped out of bed and started to go downstairs. Henry followed. He was probably wondering why the hurry. He been on the rug on the other side of my bed.

Today is Saturday, the best of all days when I was a kid. I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted. Most of the year that meant hauling my bike out of the cellar and taking off to explore. I was usually by myself. My closest neighborhood friend seldom rode her bike. We were walking buddies. My bike was blue. It had been a Christmas present. It had no bells or whistles, but it had a wire basket on the front. Sometimes, though, if I went over a bump, whatever was in the basket flew out to the ground. I remember library books bouncing in the basket and me trying to hold on to them. I had favorite places and favorite routes. I went all over town and sometimes into the next towns. Even though I was gone all day, and my mother didn’t know where I was, she didn’t worry. It was a safe world.

Lately I have been a sloth. My to do lists never get shorter. I just keep adding to them. The only chore I generally complete is the easiest, the simplest chore. Yesterday it was the bird feeders. Today I have to check my little library. My summer clothes are still in the closest. I have great intentions but no follow through. I don’t feel guilty. I’ll just use longer paper.

My bedroom in Ghana had a wall of louvered windows with smoked glass so you couldn’t see through the windows. They opened inward. There was also a screen. You could see through the screen. I never saw anyone look, but I decided to add curtains anyway despite my total lack of sewing skills. I bought yards of brown Ghanaian fabric. I bought heavy twine. I put the twine across the cut edge of the fabric and folded that edge over the twine. I then used a running stitch and sewed all the way across the edge. Voila! I had a curtain. I was a seamstress and an interior decorator.

Today looks like a lovely day.