Be Prepared

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." — Seneca

Got all my hurricane prep done here yesterday ... keep in mind that we're pretty far inland and don't expect to be significantly impacted by anything buy high winds and heavy rain (if that). But, as we've learned in the past from all the lengthy power outages we've had the past couple of years: better safe than sorry. My mom used to have a plaque that said:

Be prepared! It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

I do worry for my Maine friends... the projected trajectory of Earl looks to hit them far harder than it will us. I know a couple of you are up in Maine ... keep in touch, okay?

Doing the errands did put us behind a bit, and then having agility last night meant DD didn't get her homework done. We were up until almost ten and she still had math. BUT... one of the bennies of homeschooling is she can finish this morning. I just warned her I'd wake her up a little earlier than usual.

I also got a little bit of writing done -- a VERY little bit, but it was something. And, despite being ridiculously far behind on pretty much everything, I still plan on setting the timer and writing for at least twenty mins today.

My dog is still itchy. I *thought* was giving her Benedryl, until yesterday I found the pills on the floor in various places in the house. So, I don't know whether it's helping or not. I'd decided last night to take her to the vet, because we have a long weekend coming and if she gets worse, it's a longer wait, but now, since I found out she wasn't taking the meds, I'm on the fence again. I gave her a dose last night with rolled up ham and saw it go down her gullet.

What to do? *sigh*

Today, any hurricane prep will be from here. I'm going to harvest everything I can from the garden as high winds and heavy rain is probably going to destroy plants. My squash, in a moment of irony (since I protected them against the borers successfully) have gotten a fine white coating (mold?) all over their leaves and are dying. Now, I gotta figure out how to treat THAT problem. My tomato plants are nearly by and the cucumbers are getting bottom heavy which means they're starting to try to make a lot of seeds (indicating that the plants think the growing season is pretty well over, too.

I need to cut down more perennials that are done blooming and prune some bushes. Today or wait until the weekend, which should be pleasant, cooler and sunny.

So, that's MY exciting life. Anyone doing something better? Share and let me live vicariously.

========================

Accomplishment is in Your Big Picture

You're not sure how long it will take to get where you're going... but you'll feel amazing once you've arrived. You've got an uphill journey ahead of you, and you can't even really see what's around the corner. And while you have your destination in the back of your mind, you are going to enjoy every turn of this road your on. You're gaining strength, skills, and insight as you travel. And you won't be the same person at the end of the trip.

What's In Your Big Picture?

Mostly right!

======================

Preparing for Winter

When the bold branches
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves -
Welcome wool sweaters.
~B. Cybrill

I started tearing down the garden yesterday. On the one hand, it makes me sad, but on the other, we had such a terrible year (garden-wise) that it's almost a relief to pull everything up and get it out of sight.

I think I picked three full-sized tomatoes this year -- off about a dozen plants! And, though we certainly had more cherry tomatoes, there were never more than we could easily snack on in one sitting, and that was from another dozen plants. We should have been swimming in red.

We picked five cucumbers this year, off of eight plants. A few handfuls of beans and peas. The carrots died for no apparent reason. The only thing that produced decently was the squash, which is starting to die now, and I'm not sure why. I'll probably get 4-5 more squash off them before they're gone.

So disappointing. I really wanted to have tomatoes to can this year. And maybe more pickles. Good thing we aren't pioneers, and can go to the store when the garden flops!

Today, I'll finish pulling up what's left, except for the squash which gets to live until it dies on its own. I'll also finish chopping down most of my perennial flowers which are done blooming. All I have left are the fall bloomers: asters and chrysanthemums.

Then I need to do my bulbs -- I want to plant pink daffodils for the spring since the voles and chipmunks have decimated my crocus and grape hyacinth bulbs, and I want something besides yellow. I think there are a few other deer resistant bulbs (which probably means vole-and-'munk resistant), so I need to research that as well.

And then hunker down and get ready for a long, white winter.

=======================

ACK! A bird just flew into my slider -- not hard, but still. We don't have a plain glass one, either. What was it thinking? We had a bat slam into it once a couple winters ago and then land, motionless in the snow on the deck. I couldn't just leave him there, so I donned oven mitts and grabbed a towel, picked it up and put him in the rafters underneath our deck where he'd be safe until he regained all his facilities. I like bats. They are good doobies.

========================

Preparing For NaNo

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up. ~Author Unknown

Okay... I've been making up a battleplan today on how to keep up with the things I must keep up with during November and still have time to write 1662 words a day.

Y'all will forgive me if I don't visit daily during November, right? I'll probably read your blogs on my Google reader, but actually visiting make take a back seat.

I'm going to do memes on Thursday (Thursday 13) and build them ahead of time.

I may reserve the weekends simply for word count / NaNo updates. It will, most likely, be consuming my every thought so I dont' know how much else I'll have to talk about.

I'm megacooking. Yay. One day each weekend, I'll menu plan and cook ahead as much as possible (I love my freezer).

I plan on brainstorming scenes at night as I'm getting ready to sleep (oddly, this is the best time for me to think abstract thoughts -- do you suppose it has something to do with being so tired I can't think logically?) in order to know what I'll write the following day. I already have my notepad in hand and have been jotting down extremely random thoughts about the plot. And names. An old boyfriend married a woman name Theanae. I may have to use it, or something like it, for one of my beauty queens. I have a cat and kittens (but I know their names), I may have a bull-pei pup, but I'm not certain. My neighbor owns an English bulldog who is adorable, but very high maintenance because he can't clean himself anywhere and he has lots of wrinkles that stay moist and hold dirt. Adding the "pei" to the "bull" would only make him more wrinkly.

I've practiced this week on building ALL my pages for the LASR site ahead of time, so it only takes about 20 minutes to upload each morning. So, as long as Judy gets me the info in a timely fashion, I should be good to go.

Facebook will suffer. Don't bother sending me challenges, plants, animals, hugs, pokes, flair, food, drinks, invitations or anything else. I'm going to ingnore them all.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'm doing my best to be ready... I even bookmarked this amazing post of Paperback Writer's about NaNo because I loved the suggestions!

Two days to go.

Dear Heavens.




==============================

Why do you suppose my DD took these pictures?




Speaking of DD, she's finally feeling human again. Thank heavens.

===============================