The falling leaves / shaken on a sunday night...

***WARNING: bad haiku ahead***

The falling leaves
drift by my window
and make a crunchy carpet

I bagged *28* bags of leaves just from my back yard on Saturday. I reckon I'll do 10 or 12 more before the end of the year.

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I rented "Return To Me" on Saturday night. Did any of my readers see it? Not a bad little movie. It's a romantic comedy/borderline chick flick.

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So I was performing the Vivaldi "Gloria" last night with my community chorus when I got paged to call into work. I shut off the vibrate, then it went off twice more. (This had NEVER happened before.) The message said to call in ASAP so I left the stage at the start of the next solo movement. I work in IT for a newspaper so it wasn't entirely unexpected. I raced out to my car and dialed in.

What was unexpected was the news that my manager had suffered a fatal heart attack while at home. He was only 50 years old and left a wife and 3 young adult children. As you might imagine, this has left me and my co-workers stunned. This will be a difficult week and will certainly mean changes for our department as we come to grips with this loss. He was a good manager to work for and I enjoyed knowing him. He must have enjoyed me too, since I received a service award last month and he wrote part of the nomination. : )

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Gene Eugene's words are wise and true: 'hang out with your loved ones while they're still around...'

Thanksgiving, done differently...

I'm safely home now after a decidedly different, special Thanksgiving day today. My grandpa is still in the hospital in Cape Girardeau, so I ate my Thanksgiving meal in the hospital! :) Really, where else would I have been? He couldn't come to dinner, so the dinner came to him! He was moved to an inpatient rehabilitation area last week and the area has a nice big sunroom with a kitchenette. My dad smoker-ed his usual turkey and my mom whipped up a few other Thanksgiving essentials, packed up a couple of coolers and off we went! With other attendees bringing various and sundry food items, we had quite a feast. There were 12 people, including my grandpa in attendance. It was just like having the feast at somebody's house, really. I looked around while we were eating and saw my wheelchaired grandpa sitting in his usual place at the head of the table, with his twin brother on his right and his wife on his left; it was a very comforting scene.

He continues to progress rapidly in his recovery from the stroke, but the original problem he was in the hospital for prior to that event, is still a problem. If he can get that cleared up, he should be home for Christmas.

Driving home, I passed my local Circuit City and Best Buy stores. Both stores had intrepid shoppers camped out, waiting for the opening bell of the Christmas shopping season. Someone please stage an intervention with me if I'm ever that obsessed!

Monday night and all is well...

Let's play catch up...

The GOP got what was unfortunately coming to them at the polls last week. It was like any punishment; it hurts but is ultimately beneficial. My Republican state representative bucked the trend and retained his seat in a tough race. I was disappointed to see Jim Talent lose, but his campaign tactics did him in. His attack ads set the wrong tone and I don't they reflected the true character of the man. He listened to the wrong people and it cost him. I'm not a McCaskill fan ,but I trust she won't embarass us.

My grandpa continues to recover from his stroke. He's made great progress in the three weeks since it happened. He's still in SEMO Hospital in Cape Girardeau but I'm hoping optimistically that he'll be out by Thanksgiving. He faces a long rehab and recovery but he will get back to almost normal in time. He has some other lingering ailments so keep him in your thoughts and prayers, if you're so inclined. The prayers of many people are carrying him (and us) through this time.

The Cardinals' world series hangover is almost a memory now. It was fun (and profitable) while it lasted! We're now facing a long winter of Rams and Blues games, unfortunately. The Rams are finidng ways to lose games under the new coaching regime just as they did with the old one. The Blues are in a rebuilding phase after being stripped down and sold last summer. This means they're not really good either. Is it February yet?

I experimented with the WordPress blog site today. It didn't quite meet my expectations and I deleted the blog I created. As spotty as the Blogspot blog site is, it's still more versatile and fun to use.

Guess My Costume!...

I attended 2 Halloween costume parties this year - can you guess my costume? I thought I was being clever but it backfired because it took everyone a minute or two to guess what I was! : )

The First One!...

My very first podcast is live on the Internet! Check it out:

http://mytoonz.podshow.com

I'm pleased with it, as a first attempt! : )

I Am a "Rough Terrain Forklift Operator"...

at least, as of tonight that's what my military job title might be! : ) My dad gave me that title after I helped him with a landscaping project today. He's building a retaining wall behind the family home in Festus. We never really had a backyard, as our lot sloped steeply downward into some woods. It was a challenge to mow in the summertime! : ) For years a major landscape project has been talked about but never came to fruition until recently. The solution is to build a retaining wall out of 2,300 pound concrete blocks and add some fill dirt and grass to level it off. The first 20 blocks were delivered today and my dad rented a jumbo forklift machine to move them down the hill and into place. I'm always a little leery about operating heavy equipment, but this experience was positive! Once I got the hang of driving it, and figured out it wouldn't roll over with me in it, it was actually kind of fun! : ) It will take about 3 more loads of blocks to do the whole job, he estimates.

Does anyone else wish the election happened last week? I'm beyond sick of all the attack ads currently polluting my television and radio stations.

I had a nice leisurely week off from work this week. I drove to Cape Girardeau to visit my grandfather in the hospital on Tuesday and Thursday, got in some great workouts and then helped my dad all day today. Tomorrow I'll rake leaves and clean up my yard. Tomorrow night is another costume party! I'll likely recycle the costume I wore last Saturday night.

Podcast update...

Hopefully you haven't been waiting with baited breath for my podcasting debut... : ) I spent a couple of hours tonight trying to put one together. Talking into a microphone is harder than I thought it would be. :) After attempting about 50 takes, I'm calling it a night. I'll try again tomorrow night.