Finally, it's cool enough around here to actually make me think it's October.  I remember a time when you could put an uncut pumpkin out on the porch on October 1st and it wouldn't rot down into a boiled, nasty blob by October 7th, but those days seem to be gone.  We learned a couple of years ago to wait and buy our pumpkin the week of Halloween, and if we didn't carve it, it would usually last until Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow, we are getting a pumpkin...maybe two, so we can carve one, and save the other.

Today, I got a lovely birthday present from Christy (Thank you, Christy!!!!) and it put me in a better Autumny mood than I had been in previously, which meant that I had only stuck a few decorations outside before, and called it a day.  This morning, I dragged the boxes back out and dug out some more indoor pieces I wanted to have around, and after puting out all the candles and potpourri, this place is smelling mighty lovely.

The camera happened to be nearby, which is unusual, because it never seems to be within reach when I want it, so I decided to snap a few pictures of the house feeling Fallish.   This is BY NO MEANS all of the decorations.  I only wish these pictures came in Smell-O-Vision:

It was either 3 or 4 years ago that Charles first noticed a baby watersnake poking his teeny head out of our goldfish pond.  Being the nature boy that he is, he just casually grabbed a long stick with a hump on one end, slipped it underneath the snake's belly, and in one fluid motion pulled the snake out of the pond and flipped him over the fence into the creek that runs along the back of our property.  He figured that would be the last time we'd see that snake, but he figured wrong.

Apparently, our little pond is that snake's very favorite place in the world to be.  Ever since then, it has become something that Charles just knows he needs to do every week or two - go fling the snake out of the pond.  During the winter, we don't see the snake at all, but he obviously doesn't hibernate far away, because every spring he's back, only bigger.

On Monday, Charles tossed him over the fence for the hundredth time, but this time, the snake gave Charles a dirty look and turned around to come right back to the pond.  Charles had a hard time getting the stick back underneath him because he was moving so fast, and he made it back into the pond and stayed underwater until Charles got tired of waiting for him and gave up.  Since then, we've been able to see his head poke the surface from time to time, but if we dare take a step in his direction and he spots us, he darts back to the bottom again.  Also, we aren't able to find two of our goldfish, so we figure he finally got 'em, because they were so big that he probably wasn't fast enough to get them until he grew bigger himself.   

Oh, well.  Charles did his best to keep those fish safe for as long as he could.  I didn't really do anything for them myself except toss food into the water, because while I'm not particularly afraid of snakes, I'm not a confident snake wrangler, either.  Anyway, they were feeder fish that we got at PetsMart for something like 15 cents each, and they were able to grow as large as koi, so I guess we should just feel good that they lived a whole lot longer than they would have otherwise.  That's life at the bottom of the food chain.

This is a picture of the snake from a year and half ago - he's much bigger now:

As per the request of korpun and his recent meme, here are some pictures of my computer area, the nearest window to that computer, and the view out of that window.  Please keep all expectations as low as possible.

This is where a lot of catching up on my internet reading gets done, although I will admit that I do access livejournal and personal emails pretty regularly from work.  But, this is the PC where I spent my sleepless nights playing Snood, scanning photos, reading the Crime Library archives, creating the more lengthy lj entries, working from home on Fridays, updating my iPod, banking online, etc., it's cuter than my desk at work, so I chose this one.  Also, my office at work doesn't have a window, so it is automatically less interesting by default.

Here is a view of the workstation where the computer and printer (that currently doesn't print) sit.  Normally, one of our cats (most often, Elvis) would be laying in the space between the keyboard and the monitor, demanding attention:




Here is a meta close-up to show korpun's meme entry, and better showcase the cat-laying area:



I have to turn to the right to be able to see the nearest window, but from my chair, all I can see is the side of the house next door:



If I get up and walk over to the window, I can see this if I look left:



That's our little shed and fence!  I can see this if I look straight ahead:



That's a view of the neighbor's broken gate, and also a view right into their sunroom. A little more to the right is a direct view into the kitchen window, which hasn't mattered for about a year and a half now, because that house has been sitting empty.  This weekend, new tenants moved in, so I guess I am going to have to start keeping these blinds closed.  I'm kind of bummed, because I have enjoyed keeping them open, but the cats might end up being more bummed about it than me, because this is one of their favorite windowsills to sit on and chatter at birds, and the carpet directly below was one of the most popular sunspot areas to lay in.  Now that I think about it, I guess I can still keep the blinds lowered for privacy, but still allow in some sunlight for the furry babies.  I can't stand the thought of them suffering without their sunbeams.

And that is my work area and window, in all their splendor!

 

I really miss my closet today. I wonder if it is thinking about me as much as I am thinking about it? We shared some very tender moments over the weekend, and our relationship has become much stronger as a result. Now, being away from it tugs at my heart a little.

In the very beginning, I had expected that everything would be fine between me and my closet. When we chose our house I made sure to check the size of the master closet, because the others were pretty small, and there was no linen closet, so I knew our bedroom closet would have to bear a lot of storage responsibility. A walk-in, the closet seemed plenty large enough at the time, but later I realized that was only because it was empty, and I had been tricked into thinking it was big enough when really, it was ridiculously small. Once I started hanging our clothes up, all I could say was, "Oh". I felt my shoulders slump, and I sank into a deep, deep depression that only bad closets can cause, and I stayed that way for 7 and 1/2 years.

I tried lots of different things to make the most of the space. I hung Charles' pants on the higher rack so I wouldn't have sleeves in my face from both sides when I dared to walk inside, but that didn't help much. I put my old childhood dresser on one side to hold folded items, but it was so dark and awkward to get to under the hanging clothes that I ended up only shoving stuff in there that I didn't care to lose for years at a time. The door wouldn't fully open because of the clothes hanging behind it, and the shoe rack on the back of the door only made matters worse, so to get inside one would have to kind of shove their way through. Once inside, my claustrophobia would kick in pretty quickly, because there was clothing in face at every turn, and the door had mostly closed me in. It was as though the closet was mocking me, and I hated it for that.

This past Christmas, my Dad gave Charles and I a Lowe's gift card. I decided that money would be best spent on some nice, white organizational items for the closet, to hopefully open up the space a little bit and add a few years back to my life. Charles and I went to check out what was available in the way of Home Organization, and sure enough, there was a whole huge section dedicated to closets. Even better, there was an entire line of white presswood shelves, cabinets and cubbies that were on CLEARANCE (one of my favorite words ever), so we just started grabbing up some of everything. Ideally, we would have taken some measurements before heading out to the store, but that would have been much too sensible and out-of-character for us, so we guessed. In the past, I have turned out to be a very good guesser at what will fit where just by eyeballing it, so I wasn't particularly worried. The worst part was that every piece required assembly, but Charles was super-sweet about it, and got to work the next morning cranking out the pieces while I prepared the closet for the installation.

In the end, what we picked out ended up fitting in the closet perfectly. I dedicated one side to the organizational units, and the other side to hanging clothes, and there is SO MUCH MORE SPACE in there now. When I walk in, I can breathe fine, there is nothing flapping in my face, and the whole room seems brighter because of the white cabinets. Every shoe has a cubby, every boot has a shelf. The door opens all the way and stays that way until I close it, although now I prefer to leave it open so I can catch glimpses of how tidy everything is when I walk by. It's like my own little paradise, a tiny piece of heaven in a crazy, crazy world, and I love it. I really, truly love it. Now, if we can just save up enough money to punch a small window into our dreary hole of a bathroom, I can die a happy woman.