Here it is the end of October, and I find myself looking back at the last few months and wondering… what happened? I vividly remember planning to travel with my friend Tina to Portland, OR to go to a writer’s conference in the summer. It was hot, and we took her car instead of mine because it is air conditioned. We took our bathing suits, and then the only night we could have gone for a swim they were doing some kind of maintenance, and we ended up not going. But we watched  for a while from our 3rd floor balcony as they cleaned it out.

But suddenly it’s almost the end of October, and I’m wondering where the time has gone. I’m working on a book deadline that’s due mid-November. I’m also thinking of the deadline of when I need to get my snow tires on my car. And thinking of snow tires, and snow, I was out shopping today and mixed amongst the end of the Halloween costumes and decorations are a few Christmas displays, already with colorful blinking lights.

That’s not right. First I want to see the displays of Halloween candy on at half price….

Wow, if you are like me, you are wondering what happened to summer. Here on the west coast it’s like someone threw a switch and suddenly the temperature dropped, and the rain started. I still have a bunch of green tomatoes outside, they have to come in to get ripe on the counter.

I got a couple of new blueberry bushes from a local farm and planted them – I couldn’t believe it, I planted them the day before the rain started. That means next year I should have a couple of bowls of yummy blueberries, if my middle son doesn’t eat them all first, as he has a major fondness for massive quantities of blueberries.

It’s time to start battening down the hatches for winter, I guess. But I’m ready. I just bought the cutest pair of boots….