a slow week, I hope!

Last week was full of excitement as my new floors were installed.  I love them!  (Yeah, I did say that before.)  Hopefully, by the weekend, I will have some area rugs (currently at the cleaners) so that I won't be stepping out of bed onto a cold floor.  Meanwhile, my bedroom slippers live close by the bed.

My brother and sister-in-law arrived Sunday afternoon and left Monday AM - a whirlwind visit.  They went down to Lorton, VA to catch the auto-train to Florida where they spend the winter.  It was fun seeing them, even if very briefly, but I think I overdid it on the weekend, trying to get the house ready for their visit.  I'm back to being exhausted by late afternoon.  Just can't seem to shake off this cold.  Back in the day, when I was young, (even when I was middle-aged) my colds lasted less than a week.  These days, I never seem to get rid of them in less than 2 weeks!  Maturity (i.e., old age) is wonderful, isn't it? 

We've been having Indian Summer for the past week or so.  It's cold at night, but warms up into the 60s during the day.  Lots of sunshine, except for yesterday when it rained all day.  Today is mild, but breezy.  I look out the front door and see leaves blowing all over.  I've raked twice this fall, but expect to have to do it again soon.  No trees in my yard, but the wind brings me plenty of leaves from elsewhere!  I'd be delighted to get these leaves if I had room in my yard for a compost pile.  However, my yard is quite small, so the leaves are bagged up and put out for pickup.  Most of my flowers are still healthy, although the wax begonias and impatiens got nipped by the frosts.  Mostly what is blooming now are mums.  They can withstand a pretty good frost.  Most of them will finish blooming before the cold weather kills them.  I need to start moving pots off the deck down into the lower yard, under the deck.  I can keep perennials alive through the winter if I put them up against the house or under a glass door that makes a protected shelter for them.  There are a lot of pots to haul down the steps, as I put the empty pots down below as well.  Only a few evergreens stay on the deck for the winter and one or two really big pots that I cannot lift and carry down the steps.  Maybe this week, I'll start moving pots down.  If I'm careful and carry only a few each day, hopefully I won't mess up my back!

I'm rather bummed out just now about something that has happened to my Facebook page.  The 'owners' of Facebook have pulled the page and won't let me onto Facebook until I re-register, including providing them with a photo ID.  The implication is that a false name has been used to enter data on my page.  At least that's what I think they are saying.  Of course, there is no way to actually reach Facebook and ask them what happened.  I resent their implying that I did something wrong.  I'm guessing that someone hacked my page, but I really don't know.  It's most annoying, especially having to provide a photo ID.  I haven't done it yet, but I guess I will have to unless I want to just give up the page.  I don't get much real information about friends on Facebook,but I've gotten kind of addicted to it, so I suppose I'll have to get the mess straightened out.

Wow!  Just had an interesting experience.  I heard two thumps on my sliding door onto the deck.  I looked out to see what stupid bird hit the door twice and saw one of our neighborhood red-shouldered hawks on the deck just outside the door.  He flew off when he saw me, so I didn't get a chance to see if he had caught a bird or not.  He can eat house sparrows anytime, but I hope he didn't get a chickadee or titmouse.  I'm glad the hawk flew off, because I really hate it when he eats his dinner in my yard and leaves me a pile of feathers and bones to clean up!