Good morning to you all. We woke to calm winds but cloudy skies. We still expect strong gusts but nothing like what we had earlier this week. Of course, with the winds we get the leaves from the surrounding trees. Since I have the compost tub this year I am sweeping them up and putting them to good use. At least as long as I have room in the tub. We are expecting some low temps overnight over the next week. We'll see how much longer the marigolds and mums last. I took some of the marigold seeds to save for next year. I don't know how they will do since they are a hybrid variety. I hope it will be interesting. The overnight lows are getting down far enough that I turned off the water and drained most of the water out of the hose. All these little seasonal chores that remind you winter isn't far off.

The evening news Wednesday night had a brief segment that reflected a trend we have noticed for sometime--all the sneaky ways manufacturers have of raising prices without seeming to have done so. The biggest way is one I have commented on often here--reducing the amount in a package without changing the package noticeably. It is interesting that the news media picked up on this. I figure we can expect even more in the future since commodity prices have gone up spectacularly over the last year.

Did you hear that some of the nations retailers plan to start their 'Black Friday' specials this last Friday of October? That was also on our local news lately. Last year they tried to drum up business by making all Fridays after Thanksgiving 'Black Fridays.' The holiday creep has accellerated. I wonder when they will start the 2011 holiday sales season--January 2?? That way they can eliminate the after-Christmass sales.