No, you didn't miss me because you didn't know I was gone. I actually tore myself away from here and visited my city friends overnight.

Highlights:

Goodwill Outlet World - When I saw the sign I envisioned appliances for some reason. Wrong. It's bulk sales of donated items. Instead of displaying all the merchandise on hangers and shelves, they just dump it into waist-high table-bins and wheel them out into a giant room. Everything is sold by the pound - $1.49 a pound for clothing. There were clothing bins, book bins, and bins holding toys/electronics/housewares/stuff in general. Everything had a sort of gray look about it, reminded me of the giant dust heaps in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, particularly as depicted in the movie version shown on Masterpiece Theater.

This makes sense because all the tons of stuff that is donated to the Goodwill is not worthy of being displayed and priced individually.

I found some books I wanted. One of them is a 3-inch thick book about the Civil War. I told the cashier I was glad I didn't have to get on the scale with those books, because that thick one was going to make me look fat.

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Knitting and Sports I watched the World Series with one of my knitting friends and we had a nice supper of food she saved up from her assisted living center meals. It's a very high-end place with excellent food. She has a full kitchen but doesn't cook very often, and brings a lot of food back for later or to share with guests like me.

Then, my other knitting friend and I watched the Denver Broncos pull out a literally last minute victory from the Miami Dolphins. The Broncos scored 15 points in the last two minutes, and won in overtime with a field goal that was especially special because they missed two field goals earlier in the game. Even if they did finally win, and it was exciting, they did not play well, and nobody's proud about it.

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Shopping

I don't go 'shopping' very often, but today was the exception. I've been wanting an electric tea kettle and found one for a good price, also a good laptop case, a case for my iPod, and a couple of bath rugs. I never buy rugs with the rubber backing because it gets hard and flakes off. We have to be careful about washing rugs because we don't want the lint to get into the septic system. One of my washers has a lint catcher, so I save them up until I can use it in the summer. And some other wonderful stuff.

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Home Decor

My friend Fran redecorates every couple of years or so. I would like to think her taste is evolving, and eventually she will be happy and just enjoy her home. For example, over the past 5 years she has repainted her bedroom 4 times - very pale pink; paler pink; very pale green; less pale green; and now she's talking about painting it tan. I told her I like the current less pale green shade.

Elsewhere in her condo, she did some good things, removing very dated architectural details like half walls and replacing them with wrought iron railings topped with oak; and replacing the wood-burning fireplace with an electric one surrounded by lovely granite.

My favorite part, though, are the comfy over-stuffed chairs and big sofa. I really hope she keeps this look for many years to come because it's so welcoming and comfortable, but I'm not counting on it.

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Winter is Coming

Inches of snow are supposed to start falling here on Tuesday night, and through Wednesday. Tomorrow it's going to be almost 75 degrees in parts of the state, and then the high on Wednesday is supposed to be 35. I'm looking forward to the precipitation.

Tomorrow Mr. Troutbend's cousin-in-law Ranger Chris is coming up to help me get some of the winter chores done here. During the summer he works as a park ranger. Here he is, pretending he's telling someone to 'get out.'