1. I haven't done a 7QTF in months. Perhaps the deadline of the trash truck possibly coming in fifteen minutes will motivate quick, snappy writing. Ha. Our trash truck comes "usually at ten o'clock, but possibly as early as eight o'clock so you should have it out at the road by eight." We're too cheap to buy a dumpster since we have four perfectly usable trash cans, albeit missing lids. We live in the country where coyotes, possums, raccoons, the neighbor's dogs, and other trash-loving animals abound, so we can't put the trash out the night before. Every Friday morning I don't work, I play a game with myself to see how close to eight I can get without missing the trash truck, which probably won't come till ten anyway.
2. It's Fall Festival time in our area. Our nearest village Chestnut Festival is at the end of the month. The next-nearest town, where I substitute teach most often, has its Festival this week. Terry and I will meet for dinner tonight, dinner being whatever we can get from the myriad food vendors ranging from Chinese chicken-on-a-stick and fried rice to the ubiquitous Illiana chicken and noodles in a bowl made and served by the Pentecostal Church known locally as the "bowling alley church". We will run into family and friends we haven't seen for months and I will run into many of my students, who asked me this week if I was going to the Fall Festival. One boy at the high school gave me a piece of taffy Wednesday from a bag he bought at lunch at the FF. The taffy booth is a atandby, in the same place every year. The Fall Festival is a local tradition, bigger here than the County Fair, and over the years Terry and I developed a system for enjoying it. We walk all around the square once to survey the food choices before making our selection.
Both of us rarely choose the same things and we must get at least one thing from a booth with table seating so we can sit and enjoy our Fall Festival sampling. Disappointingly, the Christian Church quit serving its vegetable soup and hamburgers a couple of years ago. They always had the biggest tent and most tables and the soup tasted delicious on the first crisp, cool autumn evenings. It's fun to see what's new and what favorites return every year. When the kids were younger, they rode the rides using tickets Grandpa always bought for them.
3. Cards/Cubs series in St. Louis this weekend!
4. This Washington Post article featured a nearby high school. Folks in town are upset the students were portrayed as apathetic. I think the article is quite well-written and accurately describes the high school students in the schools where I teach. What do you think? (Free registration required to view the article.)
5. Terry traveled out of town for two nights this week and I realized something about my fears of staying alone. I AM AFRAID OF THE DARK. I pretty much already knew this but observed my emotions each evening as the darkness approached. We recently watched "I Am Legend" where Will Smith plays a lone survivor of a plague which turns its victims into horribly aggressive creatures. In the movie, Smith only ventures outside his house in the daytime, because the creatures can't stand sunlight and only come out at dark. Each day as the early New York City dusk begins, Smith hurries home and begins his elaborate fortifications against the night creatures. He closes boarded shutters over windows, locks down everything, and climbs into the most secure inner sanctuary of the house. Tuesday night, as I went through the house closing windows and doors, drawing curtains and double-checking locks before dark, I realized my own fears of the dark mirrored Smith's fear of the night-creatures. Yikes. Realizing my fears were greatly exaggerated calmed me immediately. So did lots of prayer.
6. My teacher-certification program begins next Friday. Maybe. Scheduling and financing wrinkles remain. If I don't attend next Friday's orientation session, there's another one in late October. Praying for wisdom to know what to do.
7. Our apples are ready. Yesterday, I bought an old-fashioned bushel basket at a farm supply store. Yeehaw! Today, after taking the trash the road on time, I will pick tomatoes and apples and make salsa and applesauce. Yum. I love autumn. It's my favorite season.
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