Nov

November 1, 2022 (Tuesday)

 It is a beautiful fall day. The leaves on the tree are a vivid mix of gold and red and green. The skies are bluer than they are at any other time of year. You can enjoy the cool days and still get warm enough when it gets cold at night. We get a handful of those and then all the leaves will drop and the world will go dark. Kelly texted that it's only two months until the days start getting longer and we can make it. I'm never so sure about that. The dark time of year that follows this short run of beautiful fall days seems endless.

Last night was Halloween night. I was in bed before nine p.m. and woke to find our two enormous, uncarved pumpkins still sitting mutely, maybe morosely, on the kitchen counter. 

A few days ago, Dave saw a sign on the side of the road: QUINCE 2 for $3. So we stopped and bought two on the honor system, putting three singles in an envelope and dropping it in the mailbox. I grew up with a quince tree, an ancient gnarled thing, hardly bigger than I was, that produced so much fruit every year that one year my mother made a shelf full of quince jam. The smell of the rotting fruit and the taste of that jam are happy memories from my childhood and the smell of the two quince that are now rotting away in our fruit bowl remind me of that. 

In Japan, they often float seasonal fruit in their evening baths or in public baths called sentos. Yuzu are popular, but tangerines will do. Apples, too, sometimes. 

November 2, 2022 (Wednesday)

My brother was discharged from the hospital yesterday, so we spent some time helping him to get set up at home. We will do some more of the same today. 

My mother texted that she has a new apartment, which is good. It will mean some downsizing, but that's a good idea for everyone, I think.

We still have yet to move our things from the patio at the casita. Those plans were derailed by life. So we'll get back to doing that. Kelly refused my offer of additional rent to cover the extra time. We started moving over four months ago. 

After dinner, Dave had been steadily working on putting together some of the smaller things from IKEA. He put together six of the nine bamboo storage boxes we ordered (and helped me finish the two that I started). He also put together four dining room chairs. Prior to that, we were using his mother's old office chair and my sewing chair. We have yet to put together my sewing desk, two storage units for my fabric, two glass curio cabinets and three lampshades.

My morning was spent cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming and doing some laundry. (I need to go do the next stage of that now.) When Dave is done with his work day, we'll head over to the dump again and then to the hardware store to rent a carpet shampooer to clean my brother's carpets. 

I'm glad to be busy, even though all I want to do is lie in bed and watch old episodes of Great British Bake Off.