Back to Normal

The Peck household is back to normal again.

Mr. Peck is once again behind his desk with a phone connected to his ear. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peck had her follow up doctor's appointment yesterday, and learned that after only three weeks of treatment, her blood pressure is looking mighty fine, as is her entire scope of blood work. Once again, Dr. Parillo mentioned stress as a reason for hair loss, however, after insisting that I have virtually no stress in my life, we both agreed to call it molting. So, all good news on that front.

Furthermore, Mrs. Peck is back in the saddle again. You may have noticed no references to bike riding of late, and that means you are quite the observer. Between all of our remodeling, at both our own home and Bills', not to mention icky weather, my poor bike was getting lonely. No longer!

So, while riding I'm looking every which way to find interesting things. This time of the year means Halloween decorations, a fairly recent phenomenon. No longer is a carved pumpkin, set out on Halloween night, with a candle, sufficient. Call it the "everything from China is cheap" effect. Anyway,  I'm seeing some pretty crazy stuff out there, meaning YOU will too. Let's start with something cute, shall we?

My observations are not confined to my bike riding time, a disclosure that I'm sure will not surprise you. While waiting at a traffic light I could not help but wonder if, during law school, this attorney thought she would ever become an ambulance chaser, or fear monger--take your pick.

On another corner, I see these folks are taking the "stand at a corner waving a sign" business to another level all together!

Can you imagine being inside that contraption for very long? Please note, sports drink bottle in grass in front of chair....

After a seriously long time abstaining, I finally had a pedicure last week. Count me surprised to see the crazy new foot baths they installed in my absence. I wasn't able to get a good shot of the LED lights that change along the edges......

Walking back to my car I came across a place called "Sugar Divas Cakery." The window display of cakes was inventive, to say the least, and in spite of my lack of understanding regarding the cupcake craze, I not only went in, but I bought a cupcake as well. Asking the young woman behind the counter if she made them, I learned that the owners Mother does. Here's a lime, something or other, flavor, which was mediocre at best.

Cute but really, what is the point? Super sweet icing, and sticky cupcake. Don't bother if you're in the area.

Working in the garden a little bit last week, I made the rounds of the yard, picking up pine cones discarded by the army of squirrels living in our trees.

I don't know if the pine cone level is up or not, but what I have observed is that there are an awful lot of dropped acorns in the street. During the festival as we walked on the grass, there was a crunching sound beneath our feet as we traveled over hundreds of them. Why bring this up? The last time this happened we had a super cold winter; that would be 2010 while Matt and Tom were visiting for Christmas. We shall see now, won't we?

Have I already told you Matt is in Johannesburg, following his trip to Sydney? He's collecting cities like he once collected CDs!

Whereas the acorns mean something weather related, what is a person to make of this?

I could not believe my eyes the other day! Why, oh why, is the peach tree flowering in October rather than January/February? God only knows.

Saturday morning, during my ride, I noticed some fluttering in the air over a stranger's yard. Then it landed, and I just had to go see what it was. By the way, not knowing someone never stops me from checking something out! I got right close, about half way up from the street, seeing this guy in the morning dew.

How cool is it? Very cool, or so the owners and their granddaughter thought, once they came out to see what I was looking at! Everyone took photographs. Is it just me, or does that look like a Halloween face to you? This was a few streets away, so following our conversation, I rode home, got my macro lens, and went back. Still there.

A little tricky in the deep grass, but very interesting, nonetheless. Wonder how long it stayed there?

Most of Saturday afternoon was spent signing prints to replace the ones sold at the festival.

And then, by golly, Bruce came home at 7:30, much to my delight. After a bowl of chili together, I watched. with baited breath. the Seminoles beat Notre Dame. He, on the other hand, could not stand the suspense, instead started sorting out his new computer. It was a nail biter that's for sure!

The paint brushes are put away, as are the other tools, while the old tools are, once again, seeing use. You might be surprised how much a computer figures in when you are project managing. It will be a few weeks before B feels comfortable with his new computer, but you can bet he WILL master it.

Normal feels good.