I walked and rode my exercycle, enjoying the beautiful fall colors; studied art to try to improve the painting I was disatisfied with and some church stuff; and studied lessons for tomorrow to enable me to do a decent job of reading.

What are all of you up to?

If someone else doesn't start a thread pretty soon, I am going to give up and go back to the cottage.
jan

I am an animal lover too. Now that we are gone most of the winter, we decided not to get another dog, not now anyway. There may come a time that we no longer want or are able to travel - maybe then. We sure do miss our beloved Mollee, our Boston Terrier. She was the sweetest pet we've had.

My DD has the most lovey Rottweiler, Darwin and Tabby cat named Braveheart. Quite a fitting name for him, since there was a house full of Rotties and one Yorkie, Topsy, to deal with when he was adopted by her. Believe it or not, the Yorkie was the most aggressive of all, she's lucky she wasn't a snack for one of them, but they had been brought up right by DD (very necessary with big breeds).

Braveheart loved them all and insisted on being loved back, but was ever so patient about it. He would rub under their chins, lie beside them, lick them. Even with the old grumpy cat when suffering a prolonged illness, Braveheart would just lie beside him and keep him company while grumpy was banished to a safe place for illnesses. After the illness, grumpy even played with him for the first time and they continued to lie side by side.
jan

Looked whether there might be another puffball on the return trip - there wasn't (again).

Didn't walk down the lane to the road to check for mail - was driving out soon (there was no mail today).

Shared coffee at the senior men's coffee hour at the church.

They recently decided to use the name, "ROMEO" - Retired Old Men Eating Out. I said that it should be "ROMDO" - Retired Old Men Drinking Out, but that elicited very minimal approval: we usually have cookies, muffins, etc., they said.

Came to the library to contact you guys.

Checked a book, "the Banker's Secrets" giving money management advice.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an investment-related seminar at downtown branch of major bank, asked at info desk where to find it.

Then, leaning a bit closer, asked rather conspiratorially whether they knew what was a better use of money than putting it into the bank.

When the lady asked what that might be, I said, "Buying bank shares"!

Both of the women within earshot laughed aloud and the lady to whom I was speaking replied, "That's for sure"!

By the way - have you considered which of us benefits from inflation?

I'm looking forward to travelling to Windsor on Saturday to meet and gab with some of the conversationalists at the Kitchen Table forum.

Many there say that they have found some good friends there.

I met one (luckygardnr) in the spring here in London, another (PoohBear) near Chattanooga in early August.

Just reserved a book by a famous city planner, Jane Jacobs, now in her 80s but still sharp, called "Dark Age Ahead" which opines that our current civilization may be on its last legs, referring to a number of civilizations in various parts of the world that have come and gone.

Trouble is - the earlier ones covered a limited area of the world, but our civilization is now world-wide, so if it goes down there will be some serious problems. For a long time.

I wondered a few days ago whether, on my departure from this phase of life, whether my final exam related to my stewardship of life while I lived on this planet may include a question along the line of,

"We're rather confused about what's going on in the world, these days. Can you explain to us how it is that one of the major preoccupations of people in the indutrialized world (mainly North America) for about two generations now has been dieting ...

... while about 25,000 people in the world (give or take a few related to vague record keeping) die daily due to inadequate food and lack of clean water?".

That's a question that would give me some difficulty.

Hope you all enjoy your week - and weekend.

ole joyful

ole joyful