END OF THE WEEKEND

I want to write about other things than my stupid hair, but it keeps overshadowing everything about my day, my week, my every waking minute. UGH. So boring. I have a hair appointment scheduled (since ages ago) this coming Friday, but figure I’ll probably cancel it even if I can see roots growing out and the silvery-grey showing for what hair I do have left, in front especially, as it seems pointless to bother coloring it if it’s just going to fall out.

The rain let up after this morning and the sun came out for several hours. Everything dried up enough that we could take care of bringing in all the deck/patio furniture, and put the garden mostly to bed. There is still a green pepper plant that is thriving and has several peppers that need to get juuuust a little bit bigger before I can pick them. Hoping no frost in the meantime. It’s confusing with pepper plants. These are not BELL peppers, they are POINTY, but there doesn’t seem to be a name for that in English that I have found, other than ‘pointy’ or ‘pointed’ which seems obvious. But chili peppers and all the other peppers like jalapeno, are ALSO pointy, so why doesn’t this one (mild, delicious, bell-peppery) have its own, real name?

I vacuumed out the cushion box and put all the cushions away. Anders took the garden swing apart and I washed the canopy. I wiped down all the small tables and chairs and put everything I could manage by myself into the porch, mostly piled under the big table or behind it. We also brought in the smaller chili pepper plant which has had flowers but not yet any fruit. We’ll see. And we plucked all the cherry tomatoes as well, and Anders emptied those pots as well as pulling up all the other stuff from the vegetable garden that was done. He mowed the lawn again, but I doubt it was the last time as the rain and relatively mild temperatures mean the grass keeps growing. All my roses and geraniums are also re-blooming, which is lovely. The allium are long done but Maria told me they should be okay to leave out for the winter. I’m not sure if I should cut them down though. Have to google that.

It’s been really dark in the mornings (partly due to the clouds, of course), and winter doesn’t feel very far away. The maples are red, the birches are golden and dropping their leaves, and you can feel everything withdrawing into itself as the temperatures start to drop. Even me. Even us. Wanting to hibernate is the norm right now. Lamps come on earlier, blinds stay up to let in more light, maybe time to consider lighting some candles. Sweater weather, even in the house.

There are 80 days left until Christmas. That sounds like a lot, but it’s less than 3 months. Since our tickets home are the big present for the kids, I’m not buying much more, though I have been finding stocking stuffers. I need a bunch of birthday presents, though, since we have Martin, Jakob, and Theo, all in December. And I’m doing smaller stockings for Essie and Theo as well. We won’t bring presents for each other with us to the US, because we’d just have to bring them right back home, so we’ll have some sort of early Christmas here before we go. I still want to have a tree, which I know Anders will roll his eyes about, but I want to enjoy it, and we don’t leave until the 21st and we’re not gone very long. I also am having more than mixed feelings about even going to the States right now, for several reasons. Ugh.

It’s been good for me, this no-plans weekend, with taking it easy, just hanging out with Anders, doing household chores, working on projects at my own pace, and reading. I’m reading quite a good book that has me really hooked, and I’m having trouble putting it down, which is nice. We have book group on Tuesday and I finished the book group book 3 books ago, and quite liked it, so I’m looking forward to the discussion. There are 12 people signed up, which is insane. We haven’t had that many people at bookgroup in YEARS. Two of them have never been before even though they have both been in the club for ages. There are also several loud, opinionated people signed up, so it might be a little stressful, haha. Maybe they can all go yell in the other room and leave the quieter people to discuss in peace. 😀

Happy Sunday, anyway. Tomorrow it’s back to the grind, for real.

Mood: okay
Music: Faouzia—PEACE & VIOLENCE