Today will be in the 70’s. Tomorrow will be a quick return to fall with rain and a temperature in the 50’s which is about right for this time of year. My sister in Colorado is already a season ahead of us. She has welcomed, says I with tongue in cheek, winter with a temperature in the bottom of the 30’s and with snow expected.

Yesterday I heard a beeping, three short beeps over and over. I went hunting for the source so I went down cellar where I found no beeper but I found water, so much water. The cellar is flooded on one side, and the water is starting to move to the other side. I checked my water heater as that has to be the source of the water. It is all rusted on the bottom. I wrote a message on Facebook to Kevin Sullivan, one of my favorite former students, who is the president of Ready Rooter. Someone is coming today. I just hope they find the source of that beeping. It is driving me insane. I expect I’ll be down the cellar for days sweeping out the water and drying that side. The sloth in me is screaming in horror.

When I lived in Ghana, I had a stove and a refrigerator. I seldom used the stove as it needed gas which my town didn’t have. I had to go 100 miles each way to fill the canister. My refrigerator always worked. I used to put my meat from the market in the freezer. Sometimes it turned green anyway. I also kept water bottles in the freezer. Nothing was better on a hot dry season day than the coldest water. I had no water heater. I always had to take a cold water shower except for the start of my shower when the still water in the pipe had been warmed by the sun. I learned to take really quick showers but I was always refreshed anyway.

I haven’t been to a movie theater in forever, sorry for the hyperbole but it just seems that way; however, I have watched many movies on TV. This week I watched mostly black and white movies. I even watched Godzilla, the original. Rodan is next. It has been like a trip to my childhood where every Saturday I used to watch Creature Double Feature. One of my all time favorites is Them. I can’t remember how many times I have seen it, but I know it is plenty as I can say some of the dialogue along with the characters. I shout Them with the little girl, the survivor, in the same horrific voice. I think I’m believable.

Today is another lovely day and already 71°. The sun and clouds will take turns. Right now it is cloudy. I have an empty dance card, but I do have a few things to do around the house. I need to replace the lights on the fence and add books to my little library. Today is a wonderful day to be outside.

When I was a kid, the nuns at my school used to tell us to share our desk chairs with our guardian angels. Some of my classmates would slide slide over to one side of their chairs. I never did. I was a bit of a doubter, not at the existence of angels but that they needed a chair. I always figured mine just flew or hovered along side of me.

Popcorn balls on Halloween were my least favorite. They were usually wrapped with colored cellophane to which they usually stuck. I never ate mine. I always threw them away. One time, though, I found a penny shoved into the popcorn ball. In the scheme of things pennies don’t seem like much, but in my day, a penny was worth a piece of candy. That was a wealth of sorts.

I remember hounding my mother on Halloween to let us loose. We’d watch out the windows hoping to see a trick or treater so we could point the kid out to my mother. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t. Once we were set free, we’d start in the neighborhood first then move out to other neighborhoods. We had favorite houses which we never missed. We’d stay out as late as we could. It was time to walk home when the lit houselights were fewer and darkened house were more common. I remember walking home down Pomeworth Street, a deserted Pomeworth Street. We could hear our footsteps on the sidewalk. The only lights came from the streetlights. We were the only walkers on the street. Our bags were heavy, filled with candy. The night had been a success.