November, An Acquired Taste

November Sky

Yesterday I intentionally took a down day, I just wanted to kick back and enjoy a good book.

So I did. It was marvelous.

Then a new day dawned and I had nothing ready to post.

Nothing.

Perhaps after church, I thought, surely that will get me going.

At church we were apparently reenacting the early days in New England. No heat.

That's right, no heat.

We had a new oil tank installed not too long ago. Apparently the float by which the contents of the tank are measured was installed wrong. It was stuck at half-full (half-empty I suppose if you're a pessimist) and when the lads tried to turn the heat up this morning they discovered that the boiler was non-responsive. Nothing happened.

So we shivered through a very nice, though chilly, service.

As the service wound down I remembered that we were having a luncheon for the new members. Our head usher, Bob, let me know that the downstairs would be warm. He'd seen to that.

We have this eight burner gas stove in the kitchen (we Baptists enjoy food, a lot) and Bob had gone down during the service and fired that bad boy up.

Yup, when I got downstairs it was nice and toasty. The luncheon went well, got to know the new members very well. One of the new guys recently retired from the Navy, he and his wife are great, he was a corpsman. Served most of his time with Marine battalions. He's been to the sand box. He's seen some stuff. Of course I call him "Doc."

Got home and the day is one of those we see a lot of this time of year. Gray and cold, the smell of snow is in the air.

So is the smell of a wood fire somewhere in the neighborhood.

I do so love this time of year.

Thanksgiving and family approaches.

It's good to be alive.

It won't be long before this bush sheds its leaves...

As you can see, the Japanese maple and the cherry tree are busy dumping their leaves.
I know what I'll be doing next weekend. It involves a rake.