Today will be in the low 60’s and partly cloudy. The sun was shining when I woke up then the clouds took a turn. Now, the sun and the blue sky are back. I always wonder why the weather is described as partly cloudy. Partly sunny is lovely. Everything pops in the light. The leaves seem to glean. It is a bit windy, and more leaves are falling. The oak leaves have all turned red.

When I was a kid, I loved walking to school on fall mornings. The clear air held a chill from the nighttime. The sunlight had a sharpness and slanted a different way. My footsteps on the sidewalk seemed to echo. We talked in whispers.

I never saw a nun eat lunch. The nuns went back to the convent across the street to eat. The only nun I ever saw eat was Sister Hildegard. During lunch, you could buy a candy bar. The bars were delivered in a lunch box just before the lunch bell. Sister Hildegard would go through the box and take a few bars and hide them in her drawer. She never fooled any of us. During the day, she’d put her hand to her mouth. After that she’d chew. We knew she was eating candy. One time I went to her desk with a worksheet to ask a question. She spit nuts on the paper then sent me right back to my desk.

My Halloween candy arrived yesterday. I put it in the closet so I don’t see it. I have full size Hershey Chocolate bars and an assorted box with Snickers, Milky Ways and Three Musketeers. I hope I give that last box all away, and I hope I don’t give any of it away.

I love the classic creature movies like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man and The Mummy. I always feel sad for the cursed Wolfman. His transformation is not his fault. Poor Larry Talbot was bitten by a werewolf. Dracula is my favorite. You never see him bite his victims. He waves his cape to hide it. Renfield is the saddest character. I love the way the Mummy walks. I love Dr. Frankenstein’s lab. I love the Invisible Man and especially the old woman screaming and running up the stairs. I love that all of these movies are black and white. That makes them just a bit scarier.

The morning is wet and chilly. If Nala hadn’t whacked me a couple of times, I’d still be in my warm bed. I turned on the heat so the house will be comfortable enough for my shower a bit later. I have to go out.

Rainy days in fall are sort of ugly. The leaves on the ground get soaked and stick together in a brown mess. The bark on the trees looks almost black. The sky is ominous. Everything is dark.

When I was a kid, my favorite subjects were English followed by history and geography. I wasn’t a fan of arithmetic. I remember memorizing the times tables, the only way to learn them. One, five and ten were easy, eight and nine were not as easy. I also remember learning coins. We got work papers with pictures of coins and problems to solve like adding together a dime, a dime and a nickel. I’d practice at home with real coins.

I converse with my dogs. Nala usually answers. Henry listens. He always looks right at me when I chat with him. They have favorite words like treat, dinner and out. They both come when I call, Henry right away and Nala after a few calls. When she doesn’t come, I know she’s caught a critter. I don’t check anymore. I’ve learned she’ll come in when she gets bored or, in the case of possums, when they dupe her and pretend to be dead. She doesn’t kill the critters. She carries them around the yard then just leaves them.

After school, I’d go out on the warmer afternoons to play. I was never out long. Darkness came early. Once in the house, I’d watch TV until supper. My mother was always in the kitchen cooking. Supper was meat, potatoes and some sort of vegetable, a canned vegetable. We ate a lot of ground beef, but my mother was a whiz with ground beef. She served it in so many different ways. Her meatloaf was my favorite, especially the one frosted with mashed potatoes.

This is a four event ukulele week.