My doctor changed the organization of my sleeping medications. For the past few days, I’ve actually been able to sleep through the night — not just lay there and think about sleeping, but actually sleeping. I’m not tired when I wake up and it has been a long time since I wasn’t already tired when I awoke.

Today I got up. I emptied the trash in the bedroom and my bathroom. Then I fed the birds and while I was at it, swept at least enough leaves off the deck so we can go out without dragging the leaves in after us. I thought I was done, but realized there were buds on my Christmas Cacti. I hadn’t watered them in at least a week.

Before I quite got to watering them, I stopped to take pictures of the chipmunk who was coming and going with his little cheek pouches full of seeds. It must be a mother with a litter. Still puzzled by the absence of squirrels. We have always had many of them, as many as a dozen of them all munching away just as dawn breaks. I have no idea where they have gone. It is a bit worrying. Is it a disease? Did predators get them? There were so many, so something ate all of them?

I took pictures, realized I had to stop because my battery was empty. I had to find the rest of those batteries. I did, eventually. I also vacuumed the area because the dust had gathered. Don’t we all hope the last cleaning will last at least a few weeks? Sadly, it never does.

By then Garry was up and making coffee, so I made a cup for me, too. That was also when I realized it was time to make a fresh batch of dog food … and that there were five pound of apples on the counter. I put up brown rice for the dog food, located the apple peeler-corer, a mechanical device invented more than 100 years ago and has yet to be improved. We are still using the same apple-coring-slicing-peeling gadgets our great grandparents used. Our lucky birds got the cores and apple skins. I love not wasting food, even food we won’t be able to eat.

The brown rice was still cooking, so it was time to cook the apples. Applesauce is easy to make — if you have that apple coring-peeling-slicing doohickey. And half a cup of brown sugar, a bit of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. I skipped the cloves, decided to add a bit of butter to keep it from sticking and of course, a cup of apple cider and a dollop of lemon juice. Sorry, no fresh lemons on hand.

As soon as that was cooked — about 25 minutes in total — it was time to make the dog food. Brown the meat, cook a big bag of broccoli florets, open a can of pumpkin and a can of peas. Mix the brown rice. Drain the chopped beef and add everything. Cook briefly, mix thoroughly, put in plastic quart containers. I add a bit of soy sauce just to give it some flavor.

Time to grind the apples into sauce. Yum. Funny, but my feet hurt. And now, it’s time to make dinner. At least it’s fish so it will be fast. I suppose I have to finish this and get myself moving.

Tomorrow? I’m doing NOTHING. Zilch. Nada. Well, maybe a little photography. Fall is still with us and I can’t miss it. But that’s it. Maybe fit in a trip to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions? If I stopped cleaning, would anyone else start?

Categories: #FallFoliage, #Photography, Anecdote, House and home, housework, Humor

Tags: #Photography, around the house, Home, humor, Marilyn Armstrong