Today, Chelsea and I took a nice long walk after it got light. I think she was very happy with me. It has been several days now that we have been cutting them short because I had to be somewhere at certain times. Today was a nice sunny crisp Autumn day in the mid to upper 50s. We must treasure these days while they last.

I talked to Kate this morning to get an update on Ron. He is still at St. Lukes. BUT they may be zeroing in on what his problem is. Then the next big step will be to figure out how to fix it. It all seems to revert back to that horrible infection that he had back over a year ago with that unimaginably high fever. Prayers appreciated.

I then went over to visit with Dick for a while this morning before heading to St. John's to help man the raffle booth part of the Craft Fair for Kate's baskets. That was fun but my legs got awfully tired. I guess that I did not win any of the raffles or the silent auction items that I bid on. No big deal, so I gave a donation to the church for the raffle tickets. Saw a lot of friends there too which is always fun for me.

I managed to visit a bit with Dick after the Craft Fair and before Mass. I was determined to go to Mass tonight so that tomorrow, I just have to be here and at the Center with Dick. And on my own terms. We had supper together in the dining room with Ed and Clayt. They had chili con carne and a ham sandwich. Pretty good chili too.

Now I am home and really tired. The trouble is that it is the night to turn the clock back so, I get an extra hour's sleep (it says in small print). However, I wonder if I can explain that to Chelsea. I am going to try to stay up a bit later and take her out a bit later and see what happens.

Well, Halloween is over. I need to pack away the pumpkins and witches and bring out the Thanksgiving stuff. When I lived in California, the jeep club we belonged to used to go out to Chiriaca Summit every Thanksgiving. On Saturday, we would roast a pig and a quarter of beef and have a community meal. The meat, baked potatoes, beans, homemade applesauce AND homemade ice cream. It was such fun. The guys were in charge of the meat. They would get up in the wee hours of the morning and put it on a big spit that they ran with a generator motor. The stood guard as it turned and they seasoned it with seasoned salt and lots of good red wine. You cannot imagine how tender that meat was.

One year, Orrin Nordin, one of our friends was minding the pig. Bret was pretty young and stood there for the longest time watching that pig go around. Now understand that the head and feet and tail were still on it. He watched and then walked up to Orrin and asked him. "Can't it oink anymore?'

Have a good Sunday

Mary