Happy October

Happy October.  There are a number of reasons to be happy about October.  Generally the weather is beautiful.  Warm days, cool nights and the beautiful colors of autumn.  Added to that is the fact we're drawing ever closer to election day at which time with any luck at all this madness will be over.  

With that, I present to you a few tidbits about October. 

Enjoy.

The Month of October

 

Oct. 1-Full Harvest Moon

Oct. 31-Full Blue Moon

 

Yom Kippur
Columbus Day
Child Health Day
Halloween
National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15 through Oct 15)
Italian American Heritage Month
Polish American Heritage Month
National Breast Cancer Month
National Pizza Month
National Dessert Month
Country Music Month
National Book Fair Month

Symbols of October

• Birthstone: Opal and pink tourmaline
• Flower: Calendula or marigold
• Zodiac signs: Libra and Scorpio

History:

October was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar. It comes from the Latin word "octo" meaning eight. Later, it became the 10th month when January and February were added to the Calendar.

The Saxons called the month Wintirfyllith because it had the first full moon of the winter season.

 

Fun Facts about October

• It is the second Autumn month.
• National Fire Prevention Week falls during the week of October 9 each year. It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
• October in the Northern Hemisphere is similar to April in the Southern Hemisphere.
• The leaves of trees often begin to change their colors during this month.
• The World Series for Major League Baseball generally takes place during October.
• The NBA, National Basketball League, and the NHL, National Hockey League, both begin their seasons in October.
• There are many health observances that have October as their national month. These include Healthy Lungs, Breast Cancer, Lupus, Spina Bifida, Blindness, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• The United Kingdom celebrates the 21st as Apple Day.

 

Another rant: political signs

 Here they come. Popping up all over the place like mushrooms after 2 weeks of rain.  Political signs.

Local pols along with Biden-Harris vs Trump-Pence.  

Some observations:

1.  Some people aren't content with one sign per candidate on their lawn.  They have to have numerous signs saying the same name from one end of their lawn to the other.

2. The most people who tend to do number 1 are supporting republicans.  Are they afraid of what they think is going to happen  so they think it's necessary to drive the point home?

3. In my community there are a lot more republicans putting up signs supporting people for local and state government but very few put up Trump-Pence signs. They're probably afraid of their neighbors plus they're resigning themselves to the fact that Trump's a goner.

4. I don't know of one single person who was ever influenced by a lawn sign.  In fact it tends to do the opposite.  Strengthen their resolve to vote the jerk out. 

5.  Why does it have to take so long to get rid of them up after the election?  

Generally, if you haven't already figured it out, I find them to be ugly and useless.  No one cares who you're voting for-especially if it's Trump!

Odds & Ends

 Some random thoughts in no particular order.

1.   First on the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg- This is a great loss to our country.  RBG was a huge advocate for women's and civil rights.  Compounding this is Mitch McConnell's promise to push through a Trump appointee-in spite of his remarks regarding Obama's pick in 2016.  This points out the hypocrisy and utter corruption of this republican congress.  Get out there this November and vote these guys out!

2. The weather over the last few days has been uncharacteristically chilly reminding me that I still have quite a bit of wood to split.  Most of it is done  but now I need to stack it. I'm hoping I have enough on hand for the next 2 seasons at least.  By then I'll be 80 and not sure if I'm going to be wanting to spend a lot of time working up a supply of wood.  Maybe we'll switch our stove to a gas insert.  We'll see how it goes.  I've been burning wood for 43 years. 

3.  My lovely wife and I recently celebrated our 53rd anniversary.  Like all married couples we each have our pet peeves.  One of mine is grocery shopping with her.  I usually do it myself on Sunday mornings when I can get in and out quickly.  I make a list, get what's on the list and that's that.  If it ain't on the list, it don't get got to put it somewhat crudely.  Anyway, my wife does not subscribe to the same approach.  She enters the store and proceeds to go up and down EVERY SINGLE AISLE whether or not we need anything there.  Not one shelf gets skipped over.  Nothing is missed.  As a consequence of this it takes us 3 times longer to shop and we spend at least twice as much.  Often more.  I know, there are worse things and I agree.  I guess I'm getting cranky in my old age.

4. Finally, a word about fashion.  Teen fashion, that is.  We went to dinner a couple of nights ago with my daughter and her family which includes two teenage daughters-our grand daughters ages 14 & 16.  I displayed a picture below of their outfit.  When I saw them I told them I felt so bad that their parents wouldn't dress them properly.  Of course that resulted in the age-old eye roll which we all laughed at.  I offered them my old jeans when they wore out which are still in better shape than theirs but they politely declined-well, not so politely actually.  They're great girls and right on top of the fashion world!

That's it for today. 

 

Where were you?

September 11, 2001, nineteen years ago, the United States was attacked by terrorists.  Every adult remembers where you were and what you were doing when it happened.  

 Aside from personal milestones there are certain things in ones life that you'll always remember.  For me personally it's Kennedy's assassination, the first space shuttle disaster and 9/11.  For my parents the first was the bombing of Pearl Harbor thus putting us in World War Two.  

 How about you?  Think about where you were and what you were doing-and don't forget to set aside a few minutes between 8:30 A.M. and 10:30 A.M. to acknowledge the loss of all those people and the sacrifice of so many others.

Happy Labor Day

Labor Day-a tradition started in the late 1800s.  It was kicked off in New York City when 10,000 people marched in the first Labor Day parade.  It is supposed to be a day to honor those who work for a living by giving them a day off.  There are of course many people who are still required to work-holiday or not.

The day also marks the end of the summer season.  I, myself, have already started fall chores like pruning shrubs and clipping flowers that have past their bloom. But some flowers are still blooming like the dahlia pictured below.  The rest should be blooming shortly.

Autumn is my favorite season in spite of what is to follow.  The cool evenings and warm days and the changing of the leaves make it beautiful for walks and picture taking. 

I have lots of fall chores to do.  Pruning everything, splitting and stacking a fair amount of wood and eventually leaf cleanup will keep me busy.  Then there's a whole other set of chores for  the preparation of winter. 

And before you know it spring is here and it all starts over again.   I guess that's why living in New England appeals to me so much.  As soon as you get tired of one thing, another comes along. 

And so it goes.  Happy Labor Day.

Hello, September!

September Full Moon-Wed. September 2^nd.

• September Gemstone: Sapphire
• September Flower:: Morning Glory or Astor
• The Autumn Equinox is September 22
• More people are born in September than any other month!

Labor Day
Grandparents Day
Patriot Day
Constitution Day and Week
Rosh Hashanah
Talk Like a Pirate Day
National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15 through Oct 15)
National Potato Month
National Chicken Month
National Piano Month
National Biscuit Month

A new low!

First he attacks a free press.   Then he attempts to slow down the mail.  Actually never mind slow it down.  He wants to stop it.  You see, it's well known that the easier it is for people to vote the higher the probability that Herr Trump will lose by a landslide.  His solution?  Make it hard-make that impossible-for people to vote by mail. 

Don't let him destroy our country any more than he's already done.  Vote.

Back to the future?

I've been following the comments on Facebook of a large group of people in town who are experiencing various levels of anxiety regarding their kids returning to school. Most of these folks want to know how on earth they're supposed to help their kids with distance learning while trying to do their jobs from home at the same time.  It's a very fair question.  Most parents are not trained to teach.  Being able to read or perform mathematical functions of one kind or another doesn't by any means mean you can teach them.  Plus where's the time come from?  So those folks have a legitimate issue.

But there's another group of parents (frankly mostly mothers) who are stay-at-home moms to begin with but they can't figure out how on earth they could ever be expected to help 2, 3 or even 4 children of different ages with school work.  Since they're not teachers I see their problem but being a former teacher myself I immediately think back to the 'old' days of the one room schoolhouse where there were as many as 30 kids in a room ranging in age from about 6 to 14. Somehow, they did it.  Granted, education was much simpler then but still....

Along those lines I dug up an old picture of what I had in mind and posted it to the Facebook group dealing with all of this.  It has drawn quite a response.  I love starting trouble!!

Here's the picture.

Hello, Hurricane Season and other news

On Tuesday August 4 the state of Connecticut and surrounding locales were blessed by Hurricane Isaias. Actually by the time it got to us it was a tropical storm but it packed a powerful punch.  Our state utility, Eversource, was totally unprepared.  We lost power that day at 1:30 P.M.  We didn't get it back until last night at 10 P.M. August 10.

The good news is we have a standby generator which kicked in and ran nonstop for about 152 hours.  It was as though we had power from the street with two exceptions.

First, it was noisy (which we would have to deal with anyway with our old portable).  Second it cost us about $100 a day in propane.  We have a 500 gallon propane tank and we used slightly over half of it so do the math.

So the upside is it's convenient and efficient.  The down side is it's expensive.  Our portable generator which we passed on to our son cost much less to run but it didn't do as much.  For example we didn't have A/C.  Plus with the whole house generator there's no getting up early every morning, filling it, starting it, letting it run 4-5 hrs, turning it off until later in the day and doing it all over again.  Then there's the waiting in gas lines to get fuel for it.  None of that so in my mind it's well worth it.

The second thing to report is a new chapter in the Stockwell family saga.  Sixteen year old grand daughter Brooke borrowed my truck this morning! That's one more person on the list to borrow it from time to time.  Oh, well. I had no where to go anyway!

Hello, August!

·  August was named to honor Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar (63 BC - 14 AD)

·  August Flowers: Gladiolus and the Poppy

·  Birthstone: Peridot-green but lighter than emerald

August 3^rd-Full Moon

 

August is...

Admit You Are Happy Month American Adventures Month Audio Appreciation Month Black Business Month Cataract Awareness Month Catfish Month Children's Eye Health and Safety Month Children's Vision and Learning Month National Eye Exam Month Family Fun Month Get Ready for Kindergarten Month Goat Cheese Month Happiness Happens Month Immunization Awareness Month National Back to School Month Neurosurgery Outreach Month Panini Month Peach Month National Picnic Month Psoriasis Awareness Month Romance Awareness Month Sandwich Month Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month Water Quality Month