Huge Waste of Time

I drove for more than an hour today to get a friend to an appointment out of town. We were delayed, having taken a wrong turn. We had to ask for directions and arrived at the location with three minutes to spare.
And were told that our appointment had been canceled! "We tried to call...blah blah blah.. the number we have is .....( clearly not our number.)
We stretched a bit, got back in the car and I drove back.
I entertained the friend at my house since her ride home was delayed.
I am tired tonight, but my friend must be totally wiped. Her day had begun much earlier. My guess is that she probably already asleep.
The next time I will call ahead before I get in the car and end up driving that distance without reason.

33 Years Ago Today...

...the Edmond Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior. This ship sank fast, very near to safety, no one survived.
Legend has it that should a ship sink during November, the lakes won't give up the dead.

Multi Talented

I was watching this William Shatner clip when Elton John's Rocket Man was playing on the radio. So I took this as an omen to send this out to you.
Enjoy!

Progress

Four days and eighty yards of trash.
That's how long it took the two children, and their spouses, to clean out the little house of our neighbor, and fill two of the largest dump bins. All that remains are a few pieces of dated, cheap furniture and a dusty mess on the floors. There has been some water damage to the ceilings, but all in all it's not in bad shape. There hasn't been any maintenance to the house in twenty-five years.
Now here's the good part: It looks like the neighbors in the adjoining property are buying the place. They like the land, clearly the house is not a selling point.
Hopefully the squatter has moved on. It's creepy to know he, or they, are there. (Let's hope they are not moving into the empty house alongside of us.)

Naivety

It's been fifty years since the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds". I drove Suzanne's auto, the CD was in the player, so I listened to it.
It is an interesting sci-fi story, not generally my genre of choice.
Hindsight being perfect, it strikes me how naive the listeners have been to truly believe there was a Martian invasion.
The story's airtime was less than one hour. Scientists were trying to explain seismic activity on Mars and subsequently on Earth.
Bulletins fly from New York City to a farm in New Jersey. Remote broadcasts are set up within minutes. Fires flare and are put out in minutes. How did the fire department arrive in practically negative time? Martians emerge from their ship, military groups are called to service with their equipment and, poof, there they are. The same with squadrons of Red Cross workers. Poof. All before wireless communication, and the government didn't work any faster then than it does now. Supposedly many people were fooled into thinking this was a real invasion.
Or were we fooled into believing that people bought into the story? Where were the people that said:"This makes no sense at all?, but it's a great story."
One would like to think that our children are smarter than we, the parents, are. Were we so very gullible only half a century ago?

Actually....

....it was more than seven months since we have had a countable rain.
I measured 2 1/2 inches of precipitation during these four days.
That would be 22,500 Gal of water on my property alone. Meaning six weeks worth of minimum use for this household. Not everyone has this much space per ca-pita.
We need more rain!!

Birthday Cake

This is how the cake looked when it was finished! You remember! The cake I made for a friend the middle of October.
Youngsters especially like to get a leaf - or two, or several - with their slice.
White cake, butter cream, a thin layer soaked with current jell, topped with a sheet of marzipan/almond paste. All coated with semi-sweet ganache.