But it might be winter

Definitely might be winter!

22 degrees here yesterday and now it's officially NOT Indian Summer any more.  My beautiful flowers- especially the Nasturtiums -

have been reduced to a yuckiness and so cold they froze my hands when I pulled them out of the gardens. Not to mention being slimy and hard to even get a grip on.

My volunteer sunflower which was doing so well sadly never got a chance to bloom.

I had thought the bird bath was just skimmed over with ice but when I dumped it out I found a big honkin slab of ice!  Past time to retire that for the winter for sure.

So, what's to do?

Bow to inevitable and get ready (more ready) for the next season.

In many ways this has been a hard summer and fall.  Too many "moments of silence" for innocents slaughtered and too much dissension among formerly close friends with different ideas of how to "fix" everything.  I stay away from politics most of the time here - at least partly because I'm not really qualified to "fix" anything and just tend to stand to one side and remain horrified at the things we do to each other.

So I focus on what I can hopefully have an impact on!

As in:  do you have that spare key securely stationed somewhere outside your house so when you inevitably lock yourself out this winter you can smugly stroll over, retrieve it and come in out of the cold?   And don't count on the world's battery backups for automatic doors - just don't!

I get to revisit some old favorites:  what will you do if you lose power?  What do you have for extra food in case you're unable to get out to the store? And how about your pet's food?  Is your car kept at least half full of fuel to avoid condensation in the tank and/or being "that guy" who runs out of gas at the absolute most inconvenient time?

Yup, I do tend to go on about the same things - sort of an endless loop of stuff that really needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.  Things that are easy to do ahead of time and harder than hell to try to accomplish if you are playing catch up from behind the eight ball.

I've noticed through life that the 8 ball never seems to be on level ground - just sayin!

So break out the winter coats, the long underwear, the doggy jackets

and whatever else makes you feel warm and fuzzy!

You've got this!