It has been 11 days since an update of life and what has been going on around here. It is going the same. Yup, all the same, the sameness of it all. What kind I write about, the same, or something new. Let's think a bit. Something new. Oh, the count of pinecone pickups is nearing over 8,000. That doesn't even begin to tally up the wheelbarrows full of pine needles, though it seems that the pine needles have slowed down from falling. Now it is all the maple leaves all over the backyard. It isn't going to warm up any more here. I will just try to do some raking if it ever dries up a bit this week. Everything that has to be winterized has been winterized now. I still have to top off one of the container with sand for the ice on the deck and the sidewalk. Those containers are so heavy when full. It takes me awhile to get them up the downstairs from the basement, then through the house to the outside deck. I leave one on the front deck, then make the container lift to the garage. I put it in the garage and then scoop up the sand for the sidewalk to the mailbox. It is all a process, and after years of doing all this, I have it down. When it is icy I walk right next to the sidewalk until I get to the garage side door to get into the garage to get to the sand. That is about it for the winter readiness.

Matthew Perry died. Wow, he was so young. What happened? I know it is private, the news was saying in was in his hot tub. It is just sad, he was so young at age 54 and will be greatly missed by all. I know that we all will pass away at some point, yet it is always so unexpected with the young.

My granddaughter has her 12th birthday today. Randy and I drove to Oconto on Tuesday with her two presents. I bought her a chala crossbody purse. I choose a sunflower one on it. I also bought her a L.L. Bean winter coat. She picked out the color, it is almost pink, though I am calling it a dusty rose. It fits and looks lovely on her. Her parents were soooo surprised when we pulled in their driveway and slammed the truck doors. My granddaughter was at cheer comp practice, so the adults got to visit until Anna went to pick up our granddaughter. She gets home and she is sooooo surprised and happy to see us. We only stayed for a few hours because it was a school night. There was a terrible thunderstorm we had to drive through going back here to Dexterville. A three hour drive took almost 4.5 hours. Yikes, Randy is a safe driver in the dark and rain. Then you know it takes hours to unwind and fall asleep. Oh, we rolled in around 11:30pm.

Look I see some blue sky peeking through the clouds. It is about time. It has been dark and gloomy here since last Monday. Oct. 26th. It rained for 4 days, all day. There were flood warnings for the Yellow River. It is all better now, it wouldn't be my first rodeo dealing with flooding here on the Island. I remember back in 2010 I think it was, it flooded so bad, that we couldn't leave the Island. There was water way above the culvert under the land bridge. Then when you looked in the daylight it was just water, no road visible to the East of the land bridge. I went rowing in the little boat, why not, gotta check it out. I remember the emergency people were boating around and checking on the people back here. Then brought groceries for folks who might need it. They also asked if there was anything we needed especially if we had pets who might need something. It was so kind of them.

I got nothing else. Today the Packers play at noon, so you all know I won't have to engage in any conversation with Randy. I can just do whatever that I want to. Peace within yourselves. Take care. Be safe. Peace.