Update

Okay, it's been a while since my last blog post, and I apologize for that.  The holiday season is upon us, and there are things to do, places to go, etc.  I've made a few forum posts in the interim, but it's a lot easier to respond to a forum post than it is to initiate a blog post.  My brain simply isn't in the right mode most of the time.  But as the holiday season winds down, that should change.

The good news is that my Christmas shopping is done and everything is wrapped.  Also good news is that I haven't had a migraine in at least a couple of weeks.

On the downside, we lost Coach Mike Leach recently, and that sucks.  The crazy pirate was always a hoot in press conferences, and he brought his eccentric genius to the football field and gave us some memorable offenses.  R.I.P., Coach.

My books are now live on Smashwords!  The Draft2Digital acquisition of Smashwords seems to be complete now, or at least complete enough, because my books went live on that retailer a few days ago.  Welcome, Smashwords shoppers, and I hope you like my stuff.

I guess that's all for now.  If you're traveling for Christmas or New Year's, then I hope you get there and back safely.

Until next time...

It's raining acorns

It's been a long time since I've seen this many acorns.  Or heard, rather, not seen, because it's the racket that I'm noticing.  Just a constant refrain of rustles and bangs and thunks.

Does this mean we're in for a colder-than-normal winter?  That's the conventional wisdom, right?  I honestly don't know.  I'm not a farmer, nor do I subscribe to the Farmer's Almanac.

Right now, it's unseasonably warm.  It's 78 degrees at the moment.  It should be fifteen or twenty degrees colder.

So I don't know anything about any of this.  :/

All I know is that there are lots of leaves on the ground, and those leaves won't mow and bag themselves.  *sigh*

R.I.P., Killer

Jerry Lee Lewis has passed away at the age of 87.

Nicknamed "the killer," he was one of the trailblazers of rock and roll back in the 1950s.  His life and career were turbulent, and I won't rehash the drama here.  Instead, let's remember the talent and the music and celebrate the man's contributions to culture.  He was a legend, and he'll be sorely missed.

R.I.P., Jerry Lee.

Rough week

It started Sunday night...

I was doing some handyman stuff, and I dropped a screw behind my workbench.  I got down on my hands and knees to look for it.  While down there, I managed to jab myself in the eye with the handle of my bench vise.  My contact lens popped out, and my eye hurt for several minutes afterward.  I don't think the contact was damaged.  My eye didn't look injured when I examined it in the mirror, so I figured I'd simply wait and see rather than go to a doctor.  I've only worn my glasses this week to give the eyeball a chance to heal.  There was a slight bit of stinging on Monday, but it wasn't bad.  I think it's going to be fine, and I'm going to try wearing my contacts tomorrow.

On Tuesday night, I had a migraine headache.  All night.  Well into Wednesday, too.  My headache mostly subsided later on Wednesday, but I still felt tired and weak and a little queasy.

I'd like to feel normal on Thursday.  And wear my contacts, too, so I can actually see things.  I've got a social engagement this weekend, and I'd like to be... well... sociable rather than zombie-like.

On the plus side, there's lots of fall color here at the moment.  The sourwood tree is particularly striking, full of bright-red leaves.  It's actually been a pretty nice fall so far.

Tentative measures

I knocked down three Joro webs and killed two spiders.  They were in my way, so they simply had to go.

The silk is very strong, stronger than I anticipated.  Instead of just waving a broom at the web and easily sweeping it away, I had to sort of hack at it.

I might have gone on to take down a few more webs, but I got the willies something fierce, so I had to stop.  You can't fight the willies, man.

I watched a male Joro groom his female mate.  Or that's what it looked like, anyway.  Fascinating stuff.

I'll get around to knocking down more webs eventually.  I can't have trick-or-treaters running into them, after all.  For the time being, though, I'm content with the tentative measures I've taken.

Joro overlords

In recent weeks, my home has been completely taken over by Joro spiders.  I'd never seen one before until a few weeks ago, and now they're everywhere.

I've been reluctant to knock down their webs, and I'll tell you why.  For one, they're a novelty in this part of the world, and I'm a curious cat.  For another, they spin yellow silk that shines like gold in the sunlight, and I think that's pretty cool.  Thirdly, they eat a bunch of insects.  The webs are littered with their trophies.  I think maybe the native insects don't "see" the webs as well as they see the webs of native spiders.  Whatever the reason, the Joros are absolutely slaughtering the bugs on an industrial scale, and that's a good thing.

The creepy part is that there's so many of them right next to the house.  The native spiders have never behaved like this.  It truly feels like an invasion, a conquest.  The Joros are our new overlords whether we like it or not.

Now if we could just teach them to eat yellow jackets...

Rough week

I've been sick this week and have had headaches pretty much all week.  I think it started Monday afternoon when I was bitten on the thumb by a mosquito.  A few hours later, I started to feel achy and weird.  My guess is that the mosquito gave a bug of some sort.  Who knows.

In any event, this week hasn't been fun, but I'm starting to get back to normal, I think.  I did some pushups today, the first exercising I've done all week.  My stomach's still not quite sure if it wants to digest food or not, but it's coming around.

I'm looking forward to colder weather.  When I get sick, I have a hard time dealing with heat.  I can deal with the cold better.  I wasn't always like this.  I used to be able to deal with heat better than cold.  But I'm older and fatter now, so I guess this switch was inevitable.

The hummingbirds are absolutely swarming at the feeders, and I've really enjoyed watching them this summer.  There's at least a dozen of them, and maybe closer to two dozen; it's hard to estimate with any accuracy due to the fact that they're constantly on the move.  When I'm sick, I stay inside due to the heat, so watching the hummers is one of the few ways I can enjoy nature from inside.

I've made a dietary change in recent weeks, and I think I'm losing a little weight.  Very slowly, but it's happening.  Let's hope I'm right.

Take care, folks, and make preparations for a winter full of hardships, because I've got a bad feeling about it.