Farewell, October!

October came and went in a flurry of wind-blown multicolored leaves. Most of the month was spent, of course, working here in front of my computer, with Darwin being the most "helpful" furry child of them all. I had to give up working on that old, cheap Target desk because the keyboard drawer gave up the ghost so I'm now working on a smaller, cheaper Target desk until, someday, I get a desk that is actually worthy of that noun.

The month started off with the partial renovation of our old kitchen (yes, there's a pattern of "renewal" here) with lovely black granite countertops to replace the warped 1980s Formica ones that we had. Later in the month, we splurged on new appliances (not shown on the photo below) after the ancient dishwasher (pictured) went kaput. I am ecstatic that I now have a gas-fired oven that doesn't cook food at 75 degrees above what you set the temperature at, like the old one did. I have to thank my gynecologist (of all people) for pointing us to an appliance discount store to make this change feasible for us.

October is also the month when the house gets decked up for Halloween, and when the sunlight begins to take those lovely fiery amber tones of fall.

October was also the month when the cold set in quickly and irrevocably, and we found Chiquita trying to keep warm any which way she could. There is nothing fun about the day when we put down the storm windows for good (that means no windows will be opened for the remainder of the year), and when the timer on the living room light gets set back to 5:30 p.m.

This also was the month when our new president, the first African American president at my small college on the hill, was inaugurated and I was asked by Harvard's president to act as delegate. My Alma Mater sent a Crimson gown for me to wear that day and I was proud to represent Harvard at the inauguration, while at the same time wearing my Ohio State hood.

This month was unusual in that, by month's end, a lot of the leaves were still on the trees, which was nice for my mom, who usually comes to visit for my birthday once the trees are all mostly denuded. But not this time. The colors were bright and lovely still.

Last night, on the 31st, I rushed home after a busy day (as usual) at work so I could be in my appointed place when Beggar's Night began. The blustery, rainy, cold weather prevented us from having the usual troops of children accompanied by their parents but I still got to enjoy the evening and most of our candy was gone by the time we turned off the lights and called it a night.

Despite having had to spend one more night at the emergency room the weekend before my birthday (and while my mother was visiting), October proved to be the wonderful month it always is (and I'm being totally objective here). My husband made his world-renowned pizza on my birthday and we went to the local bakery for Halloween cookies after. All in all, it's sad to see October go.