Monday--

Well, here we are on the last day of October. Happy Halloween or Samhain or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate. Our seasons are definitely turning. The trees have just past their peak color. Our temperatures are still on a roller coaster but the highs are lower and the lows are lower still. We have had a couple of light frosts but no killing frost yet. I am letting the last of the peppers stay where they are and we pick them as we need them. I cut down the Moldavian balm, the dahlia and the hyssop. I may do the same for the fern-leaf lavender soon. I don't want to plant it again. It's scent just didn't appeal to me. I may leave my other lavender where it is and not cut it down. On year I did that and it was hardy enough to come back. I lost it over the winter after because we had so much snow the melt drowned anything in the containers. Soon I will have to detach and drain the hose, and put it away for the winter. All the little chores in putting the gardens to bed.

I find it absolutely fascinating how our political officials get creative in using the English language. Don't like protesters? Call them terrorists and bring in the riot control cops. Don't like environmental activists? Well, they are terrorists also. Don't like a bunch of uppity redskins and their allies camping out near an oil pipeline construction site? Well, declare an emergency (or a disaster), bring in a bunch of thugs in the guise of law enforcement and clear the crowd.

As I have mentioned, I am trying to avoid the election as much as possible. The political fliers go straight into the trash and the TV is off most of the day. However, every now and then someone, usually Trump, does something so utterly stupid I have to comment. After railing against a "rigged" system and claiming rampant fraud, he has urged his Colorado supporters to commit fraud by voting twice. He urges them to "check" on the ballots they mailed in by showing up in person to vote insisting the election officials will void their mailed in ballot and issue them a new one. Nonsense and illegal--as this article indicates.

I do love the sarcasm dripping from the pen (or keyboard) of the author of this article.

Tuesday--

Welcome to November--already!! Only six more days and this election cycle will be over--at last. Though we won't get a rest since wannabes are already lining up for 2012--damn!!

This is the second pipeline rupture for the same company in the same area. Is it my imagination or have we really had a lot of oil/gas transport issues of late. From leaking pipes to exploding pipes and trains and spills of various kinds. And some wonder why Standing Rock protesters are against another pipeline all too near drinking water supplies.

I saw an interesting item from Post Politics which I hope comes through this link. Basically it shows how interminable this election cycle has been since Ted Cruz became the first to officially throw his name in the hat for his party's nomination on March 23, 2015. That is eighteen gods-damn months ago and counting. The article has an cute little calculator to figure how much of your life this endless torture has wasted which for me is 2.3%. Actually, it might be a bit less since we keep the TV off most of the time and I delete most of the stories that focus entirely on the supposed scandals and personalities without any broader features of interest (like the vote fraud hypocrisy above.)

Wednesday--

A new guy, Patrick Watson, has taken over the Connecting the Dots blog at Mauldin Economics. Here is his first post: Welcome to the Counterfeit Economy. We have seen this for some time. We read stories on a regular basis about fake honey or fake olive oil, or a product that doesn't live up to its hype. We read labels and hope they are accurate and true but always expecting them to not be.

Thursday--

The unusual weather continues here. The first days of November have been very warm--unseasonably warm. And we have had far more rain in spring type thunderstorms. Yesterday evening and last night monsoonal style heavy rain moved in with crashing thunder and flashing lightening. Mom noticed the new buds on the impatiens. Those are very warm season plants but we haven't had a killing frost yet.

Last night I was so irritated with the political ads I started muting the TV. Several of the ads were shown not only every commercial break but two and three times during the same break and those were usually the loudest and most negative of the ads. Five long days left!!

Ah, Friday--

I put my crochet doily away for a few days. I messed up--twice--and can't figure out what I did. Best to let it rest and do something else. So I took out the dresser scarf I have one-third embroidered and worked on that for a bit. The garden has been left to itself. When the frost finally comes I will clear out the peppers and fern-leaf lavender and what ever else I will need to pull. I have a stock of newspaper I put down as a ground cover.  The new seed and plant catalogs should be coming soon. I have several ideas of what to put where. I also spent some time looking at an idea I had for putting small containers on a wire shoe rack--the kind that hangs off a door. Around January I will start collecting the gallon milk and juice jugs for that project. I thought I might be able to use the gallon vinegar jars but they don't fit as well.

I'll see you next week after the damned election is over--for bad or worse.