Life continues it’s march to some conclusion here. We are past the leaf-peeping season in this area. Nothing but dark oranges and browns left to see and these breezy days and gravity are conspiring to bring a lot of them to the ground. We’ve only picked up a few bags of leaves so far, mulching them with the push mower is much easier. For now, but we have a really large soft maple tree in the front yards that is hanging on for dear life and when those finally do fall, it’s gonna be a big project getting them picked up.

I’ve been kicking around for a pristine pre-World War II Junker straight key. No easy task. I’ve seen lots of beat-up hardware, but I’d prefer to pay good money for a collector’s piece than to take on another restoration project.

The high temperature here today is supposed to be near 80F which makes it difficult to believe Halloween is just around the corner. There are a lot more trick-or-treaters in our new neighborhood and we enjoy the extra doorbell traffic. The day after Halloween we will travel 150 miles to Columbus, Ohio (250km) to see the Winnipeg Jets take on the Blue Jackets. Should be a fun night as we stay downtown, within walking distance of the Arena, and our favorite German eatery.

Sometime between now and Thanksgiving I intend to take on a big backyard project. We have a really nice wood utility building out back (tool shed) whose foundation has collapsed in a couple places. I’ve removed the old flooring and now intend to jack it up enough to replace the crumbling foundation. Once that’s complete and the building is resting on a solid, level foundation, I’ll install a new floor in it. That’s the plan anyway. In the event the whole thing topples over during the lifting phase the effort will morph into a demolition project.

And then a week from today we will stand in line to vote for the first time from this address. I understand they convert a little Presbyterian church around the corner into a voting center for the nearby neighborhoods. I expect to walk in, pull a lever, then retreat home where the outcome of the election will doubtless be debated for months. How could it be anything but chaos when you have a world class whiner (“they’re eating the dogs!”) and thousands of lawyers ready to jump into the fray?

Reminds me of the old joke, “you know what you call a thousand lawyers standing neck-deep in wet cement? Not enough cement…”