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| Week One: |
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We've had some mildly unusual weather
here in Ohio lately - it's been nice! With the exception of maybe
two days of chilly weather, it's been almost summer-like.
Unfortunately though, Fall is here and my cosmos have been dying
out. We had a small windy storm one early morning, and most of the
cosmos that were left got blown over. I have one small little patch
of flowers left at the back that I'll leave for a while. All the
rest I have pulled out. The good news is that between my flowers and
Jim's, we have a ton of seeds to plant next year |
| The morning glories are still doing
great though. As you can see in this picture (and when you MouseOver
the picture) that the flowers have climbed all the way up to the
birdhouse this year. The weather is supposed to start unusually warm
for a while, so I imagine that my morning glories will continue
blooming until we finally get a couple of good frosts. Even though
the forecast is good for a week or two, it is Fall and this is Ohio,
so I'm sure the frost will get here this month. |
MouseOver CloseUp |
Of course, many of you know that I've been offline
for a while now (Gosh, it sucks being poor). I've taken my computer
over to Jim's house a couple of times now and plugged into his
router to get my antivirus updates (though I doubt I'll get a virus
while I'm not connected to the net. LOL  ),
and check my email. Oh, but don't worry! Every time I'm at a
friend's or a client's I'm checking my email, so don't think you
shouldn't email me because I won't get it. Just remember to email to
leatherman@reigningpages.com (not the neo.rr.com address
anymore)Just a small note too: just because I've been offline
doesn't mean that I have been working on this site (as you can tell
from this update. )
Matter of fact, I've been working on a really nice update to this
site which I hope to get online by the end of the month. |
Even though my cosmos have been
dying out, the garden wildlife is still going strong. My
remaining flowers are getting covered in spider webs (like my
front shrubs usually are) from some pretty big spiders.
MouseOver these pictures for some really creepy CloseUps. |
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While I still have a few cosmos
left growing, the ones lining the sides of Jim's driveway have
already been uprooted and thrown onto the trash pile.
The pampas grass at the back of Jim's property has really grown
up this year and forms a nice barrier back there. |
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| As you can see from the pampas
grass going to seed, Fall is finally upon us. This past week,
while the weather was still warm (though it's predicted to be
turning cooler by this weekend) and while I wasn't feeling sick,
Jim and I put an end to Summer by finally closing up the pool.
We laid the cover out in the backyard and patched some of the
holes in the nylon by using leftover "dead" inflatable pool
toys. |
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Poor Jim climbed into the cold 62
degree water for a finally scrubbing. Afterwards he put in the
chemicals to condition the remaining water for the winter time.
MouseOver CloseUp! |
| We stretched the patched tarp
over the pool and secured it to last throughout the winter
months. |
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MouseOver this picture to see how we weighted
the pool cover down. Remember these 2-liter bottles for next
Summer though. If you remember our trip to see Flugtag last
Summer (Aug. 2004), we
decided to try a similar project ourselves; but instead of
flying across the water, we're planning on trying to
cross the water. We've been collecting 2-liter bottles and
informed all the pool party guests to design and build a craft
from the bottles. The object will be to see which craft will
actually float and hopefully go across the pool!
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Week Two: |
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| DO and Cliff have the squirrels in
their area pretty well tamed and trained by now; or maybe it's
the squirrels that have trained them. The squirrels have been
eating so well that they aren't even afraid of coming up onto
the porch anymore. |
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| Happiness is a WARM puppy (Zeus) -
especially as Fall is moving in! |
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| With Fall starting, a brisk wind and
rain wiped out most of the cosmos. I've been clearing out the
dead plants; but just can't bear to pull up the ones that are
still blooming besides, the spiders still need some place
to live. |
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I don't think that I've ever mentioned that
Jim is a movie star! 
Several years ago, Jim went to California for a vacation and to attend a
Star Trek convention (by the way, he's a major "Trekkie"). While he was
there, he was interviewed for a documentary film about Star Trek fans
called, what else, but "Trekkies"!
He ended up with several quotes in the film. As an added bonus, if by
chance you have the video for the movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer,
Uncut", you will see Jim in the trailer at the start of the movie. |
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Week Three: |
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Even though things changes, some things tend to stay the same.
This year, on exactly the same day as last year, we took our annual
hiking trip to Nelson Ledges. We even had
a repeat guest go with us - Ritchie. Take a few moments to enjoy the
beautiful sights that we saw as Fall officially comes to Ohio, and
the leaves on the tree begin to change colors. |
| No, this is NOT a picture of a bag of trash.
It's a surprise for next Spring time, I'm hoping. DO no longer
wanted this plant and I'm hoping that it'll be happy down here at my
house. Stay tuned to next year to see what's under the bag. |
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Week Four: |
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| Jim's catz are doing fine. Little Baba
has really grown up over the Summer and now is quite a cat. |
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| The kitties are soaking up some warm
sunshine on a chilly day |
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Baba |
| Tsunami |
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| Even though it's been kind
of chilly here and a lot rainy (well, it IS Fall in Ohio, and that's
what it's like LOL), that still didn't stop Jim and I from a couple
of projects. First we replaced my basement door, which had a lot of
water damage from over the years, with Jim's old front door. Now I
just have to get some wood to replace the doors over the basement
access. |
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Along with working on the basement doorway, we also cannibalized an old picnic table umbrella that we got from DO. We cut the umbrella in half and mounted it to the house over the back stoop. Although it doesn't add a ton of protection for the doggies when they are outside, it sure does help some when it's drizzling and, hopefully, some when it's snowing later in the season. |
| A view from the upstairs back bedroom |
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In this picture you can see both the
basement access area and the new awning. (Also, in these pictures
you can see how pitiful my cosmos are getting. I just don't have the
heart the rip the few that are still blooming out of the ground yet.
I'll probably wait until the first frost finally does them in.) |
Of course, when I went to
take some pictures of the new awning lit up at night,
the dogz had
to get into the pictures too.
MouseOver the images below
to see who
was peeking out the back door. |
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The awning lit up at night
MouseOver for another
doggie picture. |
Just a small note here to keep you all up-to-date. My money situation hasn't improved any this month. Luckily, I've had some calls from some old clients, and had enough money to keep the utilities on, the dogs fed, and food in the frig for me. Unfortunately, still no internet connection.  Life's been hard without the connection and most of my nights have been pretty boring without TV (well, I do get in ONE fuzzy channel where I keep up with the news). Fortunately, my friends still have their connections and I stop somewhere everyday to check on my email, upload these updates, and download some new tunes to listen to at night. So, don't forget that you can still email me at leatherman@reigningpages.com!
I'm not going to have time to get the pictures from our Hallo-weenie Roast, up at Cliff and DO's, online in time this month to end on a happy note, so I'm going to have to end with some distressing news. Jim was let go from his job with Summit Racing, and is having to look for work again. His job with Summit was to take incoming calls and place orders for car parts. One evening he refused to take an order from a caller since the man was quite drunk (the part he wanted wasn't in stock anyway). Jim suggested that the guy call back the next day to place the order. Being a good employee, Jim promptly explained his actions to his superiors, and there seemed to be no problem. However, a week later, the bosses changed their minds, told Jim that what he did was bad, and terminated him.  So now, when Jim isn't looking for work, we've both been trying to find something to do nights at my house without the internet and TV. Needless to say, we've borrowed DVDs from nearly everyone we know, and tape
"Smallville" from Jim's basic cable service to watch.
Oh! I guess I can leave you on a good note after all. I had a doctor's appointment the other day and got back very good results from my last blood work. My T-cells only went up a little bit (to 223) but for the second time in a decade my viral load is undetectable! 
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And what do you know, I DID get the
Hallo-weenie Roast Party pictures online by the end of the month.
Check out all the fun we had by clicking on DO's Halloween Village
picture. |
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Here are a few more
pictures from the end of the month
as we got ready for the weenie
roast party. |
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Here's another of my many
"Pix2Pix" pictures,
where it's a picture of me taking a picture of
Jim,
taking a picture of me, taking a picture of Jim. |
Lacey |
Rosita |
| Becca and Angie enjoying
the beautiful weather at the end of a rainy October |
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