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...when Christmas is near without looking at your calendar- the obligate calls for donations on TV will at least triplicate, if not more. There´s Licht ins Dunkel, Weihnachtswunder, Hoffnung schenken- all of them honourable but annoying, because those spots will come and go in a neverending stream from November on (and at the same time pensioners get to know that tickets for them will become pricier or cancelled, health insurance contributions will rise, they are in for more and higher patient´s contributions and and and... and all without inflationary adjustment). There´s also WWF- save polarbears, save the tigers and heaven knows what else (those donation calls are very impressive, because the narrator prattles along in a boring way save for the moments his voice will go dark to imitate the growling of the beasts). Now imagine how I felt when I turned the TV on in the morning to watch a documentation about the condition of today´s world and noticed that the narrator was the same. I was practically asleep in front of the TV save for the passages the man did indeed growl- to tell us to not waste water (who does, when one has to pay for it), never use palm oil (aha, are we forced to do our own cosmetics from now on?), quit eating meat and have vegetables instead (a big no to the last one, I eat green salad, asparagus and carrots only but love meat). But I sat through, torn between short naps and crocheting one last Christmas stocking (I simply could not cast away what was left of the wool). And I did a lot of hubby-watching- that man thinks winter will fall in next week and he is the chosen one to save...erm, I think he does not know even know much about what he´s supposed to save. But he was running, running, and running again, all morning long. I almost got dizzy by watching, so I decided to cook lunch- pork schnitzel Parisian way with porcini and potatoes, did a crossword puzzle afterwards then went upstairs to continue my drug-enforced resting- drugs that won´t do their trick properly, because my ear is still hurting and my heart rate still up, yet I will have to wait for a next visit to the doctor till Tuesday, when I hopefully will have my car back. Temperatures outside will hopefully go up tomorrow- the last two days gave us a first taste of winter, with temperatures never above seven and frost during night. Which reminds me that the yuccas and the palm trees have to get brought in, but hubby will be off most of the day. The lighter ones I can do by myself, but not the three bigger ones...

All seven Christmas stockings are done and ready for getting filled around Saint Nicholas Day. Around, because Dil 1 does not care for the day (yet her sons do), so we do not know yet when son will show up with the three in tow. Show up he will, or Oscar and Xaver will bombard him with questions why they are not allowed to pick up their present(s). Dil 2 insists on celebrating the day the Romanian way- on the morning of the 6th of December, with painstakingly cleaned boots, which has to be done on the evening of the fifth. Usually son will bring the boys over in the late afternoon of the Krampus day and let them pick up presents and sweets- under the sound of a Krampus´s rattling chains, which makes the present giving so interesting. Cassian loves the character of the Krampus and always tries to chase one. Poor Krampus, in case he gets caught! Family number three dwells too far off to pick presents up here at Nicholas Day. But they might come earlier to do so. I am enthused. But I promise I will survive, as always.
Today I read the information sheet of my medication for the first time. No car driving, will make you extremely tired, will increase your pulse rate- what the hell did this medic in training prescribe? There must be a notification that my pulse rate is always too high and refuses to go down even with medication! Well, three pills more to go, then we will see the outcome!
Today hubby took my car and drove the old garden chairs and the beloved outdoor couch to the rubbish dump, but only after I made him swear we´d look for a new, equally comfortable one. In retrospect it had been Schnuckele who had started the couch´s downfall, when the little monster had clawed at it all summer long, until the couch ended up in the basement, unfortunately too late. Hubby even made lunch, fried sausages with garlic bread and salad, and then we rested. Ha, I was up earlier than my husband! Then again, he had been the one running along all morning, while I was doing basic housework and crocheting only. And I decided to keep the carpets (hubby: too big, too white; me: don´t care, they are soft and will stay).
After hubby had carried the last box with Halloween decoration to the basement I sat down and started planning for wintery deco by watching reels on my mobile. The lanterns are already out on the terrace but need ´inner values´ like little trees and figures from the Potter Universe, but that´s a job for Cassian and Flavius to do, who will be here more often from the middle of November on- mummy does another exhibition introducing Romanian artists. She will exhibit her old paintings, as always. I think she hasn´t painted much the last years. Maybe I should gift Cassian a new text marker- one of the most recent improvements in one of her paintings is the boy´s addition of orange lines to a painting in black and white...

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: studio
Current Music: Disney Christmas

I spent a quiet day inside the house save for the mum-cab tour to the airport, which was interesting. Originally I had planned to get up early to watch those slow meteorites, which have a longer visibility in the nightsky- I think they are called the Southern Taurids. Good that I didn´t wake early (three is bad enough)- I cannot remember a day with such dense fog (probably because I usually won´t drive during night). And my wind shield was covered with white frost for the first time during this autumn.
I had some spa time with aromatic shower and massage oil, while hubby was off to son´s- Florence had killed the lock of her entrance door and can only get into her flat via emergency exit. Neighbour helped to identify the problem, they drove to a company and ordered replacement, which will arrive on Monday, the day my car will be in the car repair shop, which hubby forgot about. He hopes replacement will fit into his car, too. Meanwhile I cooked lunch (marry-me-chicken, not that I´d ever marry again) and crocheted another Christmas stocking. I am up to number five already, but need seven- one for every grandchild to get filled with little presents. Since it was foggy all day long and extremely dark, I thought that I´d go to the bedroom to get a bit of rest. I swear I turned the lights on to keep my rest short, but at some point I fell asleep and woke in the late afternoon only. Daughter had already warned me that my medication cocktail would make me drowsy- I think she was dead right!
One of my friends is miffed at me, that much she told me via Whatsapp. I do no more provide the obligate visiting time for her- sure thing, when my family is beating a path to my door, while hers will give her a wide berth. I think I know why. And now that my family is finally off and she thought she might drive over for exchange of gossip I dare to fall sick! Unforgivable!
Concerning mad world: In quite a few cases, but definitely not all, Halloween sweets manipulated with shards and nails originated in a TicToc challenge. The bomb threats against aircrafts is said to be staged by ru ss i an hackers. AO3 got hacked by a group called Anonymous S u dan, which is said to be part of a previously mentioned hacker community, and brought the site down because of hosting sexually provocating fan work forbidden in their religion. Maybe I can add more to the list tomorrow...

...but only a bit. What I learned: Taking antibiotics may help you by killing bacterias, yet it will also tire you out immensely. I got up at seven thirty, still tired, made me a cup of coffee and sat down at the dining table to make me a breakfast sandwich, when the doorbell rang, and in came the chimney sweep- oops, I had forgotten about him, mostly by not dressing properly. I fled to the TV nook, all the while trying to strangle hubby by thoughts only- he could have warned me! When he was off I finally was able to dress for the day, which started at ten, when daughter came out of her room, had breakfast, too, then dressed for shopping. She was very glad that she had a freee day, because the airport had gotten a terror warning, and it hadn´t been the only airport affected today. The world has gone mad, or better, some people have lost their mind completely! Not that we shopped much or for an extended time- first stop had been KIK for some deco I saw in the leaflet, which they did not have, as always. But I got myself new jeans and a nightshirt meant for Christmas, and since the festive season for it is too short anyway I decided to wear it after a first test washing. Then we went to the furniture shop for small carpets for the bedroom. Found some white ones- not too fluffy but definitely cosy. A bit. And white!!! of all things. Now let´s see what happens, and how soon I will have to buy new ones. I also bought a small casserole with a cover, since hubby once again managed to buy a pan with lid but a handle not fit for the oven. Dear man, I want to do burnt pork ends, which can be done in the oven, but not in one of our old casseroles made for feeding ten people at least! In the furniture shop fatigue set in full force, I was practically dead on my feet, and we decided to drive back home. Tedi and Action can wait for another week, when daughter will be back because of paint work in her flat. Hubby cooked mussles in tomato sauce while I warmed yesterday´s lunch for me- I am not a big fan of mussels. I eat them, but no big love between us. Then hubby went to rest on the sofa, daughter in her room, and I dragged my poor self to the recliner. Five minutes later I was fast asleep and stayed this way for almost two hours, that´s when daughter woke me for a round of crossword puzzles. Damn, that girl (??? She´s 27!) gets better with every puzzle we do! Soon she will be better than me! I think I might have to practice a bit more!
The rest of the day got spent with pruning the lemon trees, which also need a dose of domestic remedy to kill scale insects- they have infested some of the twigs. Cannot use toxic, when the trees are used to flower in the conservatory during the wintery season- those fruits would turn out inedible! Took me quite a while to finish and after that I was knackered once again. So not much will happen this evening, I will be in bed early (because I have to be up quite early also)...

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: studio
Current Music: Lotr soundtrack

Bad news- I had to do a tour to our family doctor today instead of shopping. In the morning my throat was still burning, and my ear had started hurting quite a lot. I had to wait for more than an hour in the waiting room, until the doctor told me that I had picked up streptococci- again. Tonsillitis, middle ear inflammation, probably inherited from son number three, at least that´s what I thought. Only when daughter came in the afternoon and told me that she was having a sore throat since last Sunday it dawned on me that she was the culprit. Will have to apologise to number three. I also had to apologise to a former student- I had been sitting vis-à-vis her mother, not sure if she truly could be the person I had thought of (she wore a mask, so not much to see of her face). It had been the mother, indeed. That´s so embarassing, but I have always been bad with recognising faces. I am on antibiotic diet for ten days from today on. The carpet I wanted to buy today will hopefully get bought tomorrow- it´s so nasty to have to put your feet onto the cold laminate when getting up in the morning. Things will be a bit slow for the next days, but I am definitely not feeling so well at the moment. Example? I did cook two strudel for lunch, one with minced meat, one with plums. I did not eat any of it. Swallowing is too painful...

In the times of corona parents taught their offspring how to sneeze or cough without endangering those around them. The precaution must have completely passed family number three, because the children as well as their parents spread their germs generously, always leaving out the elbow trick. This morning at four I woke because of a really weird dream, and because I had to do a tour to the loo. But mostly, because my throat was burning. The germ spreaders have been successful, I should write them a thank-you card. Needless to say that I did not fall asleep easily afterwards, throtteling this bunch of idiots who gave me their cold in my mind. That´s by worst the most careless and ruthless family I have come to know. Not even my pleas did any good. I dread to think that they plan another visit at the end of November, and that they will be here for Christmas this year. Maybe I will decorate my private Christmas tree in the studio and charter a cook for Christmassy dinners, might be better for my health. The weird dreams I had did not make me feel any better- first I dreamed that our neighbour, the one with the cancer, had died. Well, it is a distinct possibility that this will happen any time soon- she has been brought to the hospital by helicopter three weeks ago, spent two weeks in the main hospital in Salzburg then got brought to a local one nearby. This does not mean that I want to dream this occurance twice- same topic, same people (me and daughter´s godmother), different locations. My next dream was so bizarre that I won´t retell it, but it involved an Austrian ski racer (female but looking a bit manly and secretly married to a woman) and her cat, which turned into a girl the moment she was with her mother. Yay, an animagus, forced by the coach, who had forbidden same-gender marriages among the racers. I must have read too many articles about the topic lately...
Needless to say that I spent most of the day sulking along and resting- in bed, on my recliner, on the sofa, covered by a blanket, because the house felt cold though it wasn´t. At some point I remembered that I had a new box of Boxagrippal in my drawer- my mind is a vast desert a times. Had I taken the pills sooner I would have felt better during day. Not that I would have dragged the darn lemon trees into the house by myself (too big, too heavy) because hubby was off all morning long, grocery shopping (two items), picking DiL2 and grandsons up at the trainstation and bringing them home (yay, they are back, double yay, they will be in school and kindergarten from tomorrow on). No cooking got done, we had leftovers aplenty, because neither Elsa nor Matthäus ate the Grammelknödel hubby had warmed. I had to make Topfenknödel for them, which they loved. Their mother not so much, because the rascals thought them way better than the ones she does. I told her to mix a slice of soft butter into the dough, which will enhance the taste, that´s all.
And finally, in the late afternoon, Charlotte and Konstanze returned from vacation. Girls are back, dog is back, what more could one want? You could also say the Huns are back- the two put an end to the row of quiet days we had during autumn holidays. I already dread tomorrow morning, when Charlotte´s cries of distress will wake us again...

Hubby has already removed most of the Halloween decoration, but I managed to take some pictures of the entrance area. Now you know whereto those knitted pumpkins went!

...about hackers. And family. And maybe about a few more things I won´t write about. I was half dead yesterday evening after having to get up so early. As usual, I wasn´t able to fall asleep quickly after being back to bed at four thirty, yet the obligatory reading of fanfic on AO3 won´t happen after the hacker attack, probably not for weeks. It had been such a delight to plow into those fics, even though some of them led to laughing fits beyond control. Yet after a short while I´d put my tablet away and sleep. Now I am mimicking hubby- a windmill discarded in a marital bed. I cannot even fathom how intense hatred towards fanfiction must be to even start such an attack, but the world has gone mad, so...
This morning I got woken by our grandchildren´s war cries- the two won´t fight often, but early mornings seem to be their favourite time to dig up the hatchet. Hubby stormed down to the living room to see what happened, and he was like a rhino in attacking mood. Which also meant that I had to give up on sleeping in. Turned out that the children were hungry, mum and dad were in the guestroom resting and had not allowed their offspring to turn the TV on. An effective way to get the grandparents out of bed and stay in bed themselves! But Matthäus, clumsy as he is, smashed two coffee cups when he wanted to bring them to the table. That sound and the ensuing howling made the parents leave their sanctuary, but only to console their howling child- it was hubby who did the sweeping up. For breakfast we had three different jars of jam- Elsa wanted apricot only, Matthäus raspberry, and hubby ate the one we had the last days, which was strawberry jam, the sort not one of the two will eat. I made me a roll with ham and rolled to the TV nook, being aware that I´d be followed. The remaining of breakfast got spent with chasing sticky fingers off the couch, while hubby, son and DiL had a quiet time. So, family life as usual...
Blessedly the family was off after lunch. For me the time of boxing Halloween decoration had begun, and that´s when it downed on me- some of the decoration DiL had sacked had been mine. Matthäus had been in love with the white baby ghost and the glowing spider (and the singing pumpkin, but that one had been Elsa´s favourite), but that does not mean that those things will turn automatically into his possession. Another lesson learned- mark your belongings off, or they will change ownership without you even noticing it! I won´t even blame the boy- it´s his parents (first and foremost his mum, who did the packing) who should have noticed the error. Well, they did, when they were halfway home and finally started asking questions...
Weather was very wet and cool today. Blessedly no snow, as weather forecast had feared it might come down, but still... I watered the lemon trees and put a foil over them. From tomorrow on the conservatory will be their hibernation quarter again, the Yuccas have to go to the mudroom, the palms will stay on the terrace a while longer. Only the strong survive...

...in the form of family number three invading at eleven in the morning. We got woken by some heavy birds doing a hop-along on our roof at seven, got up early to do last preparations, we warmed the goulash we had stored in the freezer, so no lunch cooking had to be done. From then on my poor ears were ringing because of the steady nattering of too many people in a house too small, even though Elsa was doing a lot of finger knitting and made one woolen hose after another, using up quite a lot of my good yarn while ignoring the one I gave her. But that´s Elsa, it cannot be helped. Hubby, son and grandson went to number two´s house to help out but did not come back for a long while. It was already getting dark when they reappeared (okay, the weather had detoriated a bit), and most of the preparations for Halloween snacks had been dealt with. Meanwhile DiL had incessantly talked about her new job and I had a severe headache. Not even typing today´s rather unimportant entry could be done in quiet, because our grandchildren seemed to be glued to me- apparently I am the better version of a grandparent. Now it´s back to the kitchen to do the ghosts in a blanket, before the youngsters will be out for trick or treating. BTW: my ghost in the lantern, mostly unoccupied the last weeks, was perpetually spooking along (which involves a lot of howling), since Elsa found the button to turn it on. I think that darn thing will go to the next church flea market in March- I do not want to cope with the same infernal noise next Halloween...

Today I finally made it out of the house, and three times at that! Granted, it was mostly by driving in my car, but still- progress, progress! I will not let autumn depression bring me down! Today hubby´s car was in for tyre change, but he had lost his lug nut socket and the repair shop did not know which one to use, so he had to go to VW first, to find the correct one. Back at the repair shop hubby´s slot had already expired and he needed a new one. So first thing I did was bring husband mine back to our home, because around lunch time we were supposed to get a visit from a company worker- our entry door, bought a few years ago, does not close properly anymore. One can lock it without problems, but cold air and wind make it into the entrance area easily. The mudroom is always icy in winter now, even though we have underfloor heating. At first we did not think much about it. Then we installed a heating panel, which started up, when temperatures in the room went under 14 degrees, which was pretty much all the time in winter. Some weeks ago hubby did a proper examination of the door and found that it was bent at both ends. He contacted the firm, and today was the day a worker would inspect the darn thing. Since hubby had to stay at home, I went to number one, had a friendly talk with him and his wife, got to see young Konrad but not the older boys, who are sick (and I did not want to pick up their germs, too old for this) then drove back home. Hubby and I had a very late lunch, then I brought him to the repair shop and made a beeline to Aldi to get some groceries I need for Saturday evening. Ghosts in a blanket, spider eggs, hubby will do spooky bacon, and that´s it. My guess is that Mrs Ozempic (DiL 3) will be in bed at eight, because she always does. And she is also used to take Elsa with her, even though her daughter would love to stay up late. While Matthäus would love to go to bed with his mum but must do so with his pa, which often ends with both coming back after half an hour- daddy fuming, his son grumpy, because he is so very tired. At this point I will pour me a glass of wine and retire to the conservatory, snitchig one of hubby´s Cuban cigars on the way out and have a good time. Maybe I will open a window to let in some ghost- no, that won´t work, Cassian told me lately the poor ghost would come in pixelated because of the fly screen, and ghosts might be spooky but never dumb :))

During the drive back home from Germany I had a so-called tee-hee moment. I am not a slowpoke when driving, more likely the opposite, but I try to keep to speed limits. So when I drove the obligate 105 km/h, when 100 is permitted, and got passed by a car driving 120 at least I remembered my good intents and did not chase after him but reduced my own speed to under 100. Two kilometres along the car that had passed me got stopped by the police. I must have grinned like a lunatic when passing by the police car...

Mood
amused
Music
HBP
Location
studio

...and I should definitely not scratch it during sleep. This morning I had to change the bedding again, because I bled all over it. It wasn´t even a big wound, but bled profusely. And I´m not even taking blood thinners! I hate changing the bedding- one day it will completely ruin my back!
Daughter´s flat got looked at: Yes, there is a bit of a water damage but barely seeable, humidity is a bit higher than usual but should go down now that the roof is repaired, the painter will come next week and hubby plans to install a new insect screen, since there´s still scaffolding in front of the window. I would not do it, not for all the money in the world, because daughter lives on the 7th floor. Looking out of the window alone does make me dizzy!
Another day spent inside the house- when I came back from the airport I saw the hunter´s moon clearly- next to no clouds in the sky, one day late, which is so typical, because I wanted to try out the handy tips I found on FB for taking better pictures on a mobile! yesterday night I was energetic, tonight I was tired and demotivated. When I got up, the sky had clouded over, and soon after the rain started. I tidied the guestroom, crocheted a bit (stocking number one is finished now), napped, warmed what was left of yesterday´s lunch, but all in all I was good for nothing. Too cold, too dark, definitely not my favourite season! I hope this apathy won´t stick- daughter will be back on Friday for baking Halloween muffins for her workmates and another early shift come Saturday morning. I so hope that family number three will realise that they won´t miss much when they will come only on Halloween day and hopefully go back to St. Pölten on All Saints Day, because one never knows, there´s one more day of autumn holidays on the second of November...
My car needs more repair work, and hubby will arrange it- means I will get to know the exact date two days before, because he surely will forget to tell me, as always. Only that I need to get out more often next week- appointment at my bank, dentist, Tedi and Action- vitally important, because Christmas is near and I need a few (or more) things for deco crafting. I studied the leaflets, and they look promising.
Halloween decoration will be off on the first, I will let Elsa and Matthäus do a hunt for skulls and the like (like an Easter egg hunt)- the winner gets what´s left of the Halloween candies. Elsa will win, of course, but she always shares with her brother, be it sweets, be it germs. And I can sit and watch, or crochet. I opt for the latter...

...that the demolition work will switch over to building work soonest. Today was the last day of the old floor plate, the geometrician did a final measuring, from tomorrow on the excavator can start with digging out the antifrost layer for the new plate, which will be considerably bigger- there´ll be two houses, one even with flats. The old garden with its fruit trees will be sorely missed. Poor neighbours, who will get a building instead of green to look at from now on!
Early morning drive to the airport was boring, the only interesting thing to see the hunter´s moon showing among clouds. Soon after we had more rainfall, which finally stopped around seven, when I finally woke after more strange dreams, not that I´d ever have not-strange ones. Today I was back to the flat I grew up, sorting out books with my lover. Considering that in my parent´s living room there´d been one long wall filled with books up to the ceiling a tediuos affair. I sorted exactly three books out, before I reverted to my bedroom, this one, too, full of books. And a bed. And a lover. Hubby got kicked in the shin, because I wanted my peace. Only that he did not know which peace, because he hadn´t done anything improper.
The late-autumnal weather is driving me insane. After dark, wet days we got a drier but still dark day. It was a bit warmer, but not warm enough to make me go outside and give the hydrangea paniculate a first pruning back before the big one that will come in February. Needs to be done, or the branches might snap if there´s snow and strong winds. The other hydrangeas are safe until spring, their branches are more robust. Unfortunately the next days will be considerably colder even, with temperatures mostly under ten degrees, so preparing the garden for winter is priority now. The bad thing is that with the cold there´ll also be rain, plenty of. That might be a bit of a hindrance- I´m like a cat, prefer to stay in the warmth when the weather is bad!
Daughter came back from work livid- her landlady forgot to inform her that an evaluation of a water damage in her flat, caused by a leaking roof, was planned for tomorrow morning, when she will be at work and hubby has to bring car and trailer for service. That landlady is a special case of mental confusion. Not the first time she forgot about important affairs. Daughter spent the afternoon on her phone, calling landladies, evaluators, the construction company. Hubby will go to daughter´s flat tomorrow in the morning- he thinks he´s the only one competent enough to deal with the evaluator. Which means he thinks that I am incompetent, since I had consented to help out. Mister caretaker strikes again. Just let him...

He must have apprenticed to DiL2, who often brings home foreign groceries and makes her poor husband try out new recipes she wants to taste but definitely not cook. Well, I am pretty sure that I wasn´t the one who bought the pomegranates. I also wasn´t the one who presented a new, Persian recipe. And I definitly did not rummage in the drawers for walnuts, at a time when all shops here had already closed and weren´t to open for the next two days. So when I came down this morning to have breakfast and found a bowl with pomegranate seeds and hubby telling me that I was the lucky one who had to do the fesenjan I was mightily baffled. After all hubby had been studying the recipe for days then. And had I known the outcome I´d have ordered advieh, to not have to tinker about the seasoning. Though the hardest part of it was not if we had all those spices but where hubby had hidden them. He truly is a master of making things disappear! The good thing was that it was not difficult to do the recipe. It did not even take much time. But my take is that if one so clearly insists on doing a meal and buys the ingredients, he can also do the cooking. And not bragging about cooking skills (as hubby had done in front of the two ladies on visit) then backpedal!
For the first time there´s snow on the mountain we can see from our bedroom window. Snow came down to 1200 metres (my guess). And it´s also cold down in the valley- nine degrees. Appropriate to October, they say. ´Don´t want it´- that´s what I say. Hubby was out just before lunch, to rake the leaves together which had come down during the attack of strong winds. The construction firm sent a worker who re-erected the site fence. I watched those outdoor activities, made me another cup of coffee and supervised the chicken simmering in pomegranate-walnut sauce. I think the recipe has potential to make it onto the will-do-again list. Even though I am not a fan of people chewing on pomegranate seed!
Hubby was off after a short period of resting- he needs to help son with taking down and storing the boys´ trampoline. I continued crocheting a Christmas stocking with absolutely no clue how to do the heel. Another try and error process ahead. Now let´s see how long it will take for me to figure it out- might take a while...
Daughter arrived in the afternoon for coffee, crossword puzzles and a late lunch, bringing fresh germs into our household. Vienna´s weather must have been as unpleasant as ours, and forgetting to take a warm coat with her did not exactly help. Even if her friend volunteered to give her one of hers- that friends is more than twenty centimetres shorter than daughter mine! So I might have to battle another cold soon...

We had a rather windy and cold day, never made it over eight degrees and also got some rain. Hubby and I dragged along- yesterday evening was not that bad but lasted longer that we would have liked. The two ladies left at eleven, I went to bed and hubby followed soon after- one cannot quit watching the last part of a 6-episode film!
In the morning hubby tested the new heater in the bathroom while he took a shower and decided that it worked better than expected, I changed the bedding and turned the washing machine on, then we cooked lunch. Oh joy, baking flatbread! With yeast on top of that! Never again, there surely are shops selling those! After lunch we rested, I under the duvet, because it was only 17 degrees in the bedroom. Hubby turned the heating to non-stop service for the duration of the cold spell, apparently one gets chilled more easily when getting old. That´s okay, in a few days temperatures will rise again...
Typing on my PC was still a ´cool´ thing, because even with the radiators giving off warmth the cold was creeping through the cracks of the balcony door. So I quit, and husband mine put on a sealing strip which should help with the draught. only that it took almost two hours for the room to heat back up then. And just when I sat down in front of my PC again, all hell broke loose. So the strong winds hadn´t been the predicted storm, this was it! Since it was so dark already we did not get to see much what made it into our garden for disposal. The only thing we definitely know is that building firm will have to re-erect the construction site fence, it blocks the street on both sides of the u-turn. At the moment we would not be able to leave. Not that we´d want to- too much rain, winds too strong, we too tired...

Short entry, because things turned from not so good to worse- neighbour Whatsapped yesterday to ask me if we could postpone her visit to today. I was barely able to read her message because of the many typos. So I wrote her back that Saturday had been the day she herself had decided to come for a visit, even showed her the message she wrote. She informed me that this was great and that she would bring another neighbour with her. Now I am truly screwed- two of the sort? Hubby will surely panic, he does not like the two of them. Me, neither. At least, not much.
So today was mostly a day for tidying for me and grocery shopping for hubby. Since we will have two days with shops closed (Sunday, as usual, and Monday because of Austrian National Day) we will try two new recipes to celebrate- shawarma and fesenjan. Why hubby has bought so many pomegranates I don´t know. What I know is that he can peel and deseed them by himself, though I am the one who got instructed how to do it by a Turkish friend. That does not mean that I have to like the process. Daughter, who will come to us on Monday, will surely love the Persian dish- after all I kindled her love for foreign dining and did not insist on cooking à la Mutti! Because in my case that would have turned out really bad- my mum had been a horrible cook!

It takes a very long time for the website to load, if at all. There are days I think it would be better to completely switch over to Dreamwidth. Not that this page had no faults, but it´s a bit more stable. My mobile doesn´t load LJ at all. Happened all of a sudden. One moment I was reading posts, the next the page was off. Turned off. Blocked. No clue what happened. LJ still works on my PC and the tablet, which is a bit of relief...
This night was the coldest we had this autumn- one degree. Hubby hadn´t read the weather prognosis and dashed to the basement to bring in the bacon, which must not be kept for smoking under such cold temperatures. When I came down in the morning and wanted to put on my slippers I noticed that the floor wasn´t icy anymore- hubby had turned the heating on. Finally! It really was about time! We are seldomly over twelve degrees during day now, which is apparently still too high for the middle of October!
Not much got done- no cooking (hubby did), only a bit of housework, and three of my fingernails died during my attempts at getting the label off (of?) a huge glass bottle son bought for me at a flea market. I was at a loss today, torn between what I had wanted and what I got. My plan had been get up, take a shower then drive to Kitzbühel to the only Jysk shop which still sells the Christmas bedding I want. But hubby protested vehemently that we did not need any new bedding and that driving there will cost a small fortune. Says the man who is off by car thrice a day if not more often. Kitzbühel is not that far away and there are some very appealing restaurants in between. However, when hubby says no it is definitely a no...
Daughter is off to Vienna this weekend, to visit a friend who just moved into a new flat. She has swapped two early shifts with another friend but forgot to tell me. That means that I cannot tell off our neighbour, who invited herself over to have a drink with me. I know how that goes- hubby will be in bed before she will finally leave. She is the only person I know who will insist on having coffee after ten in the evening. Sometimes I will hear her when she rummages in her flat at three in the morning. Or calls for her cats (she has three now, so there´s a lot of calling). Or sings children´s songs. She´s a brick short of a load. But she likes me, which is very unfortunate...

I hate days like today- windy, cool and very, very dark. We did not get any rain, though we should have. Hubby lit a fire in the late morning, because it was too cool in the living room. And no, 20 degrees in the living room is not enough to get through the cold season, as a climate scientist did tell us. She also told us that soon we´d have to do without house and car and live in flats in town. I cannot write what I´d tell her, should I ever meet her! Not even husband dearest left the house save for bringing the paper collection bin back. We had had early breakfast, because at seven demolition work started anew- what is it with hubby declaring ´Two day, three at most, and all will be done´? The walls of the old house are gone now, the floor plate remains. Then there´ll be excavation work to get the power line underground, means that our street will be blocked for some time. The architects of the new objects are swarming to get signatures of all residents affected, to finally be able to start building work. I fear the noise won´t stop for quite a while...
Not much got done during day: hubby read, I solved crossword puzzles and decorated the conservatory. The moment I turn around more skulls will miraculously appear and need a place where they can spook along. Only after after-lunch resting hubby and I were ready for a bit of housework. I resorted my table cloths, put them in baskets and shelved them in the rack the monstera is placed on- until yesterday I wasn´t even able to reach those compartments! I only had to eliminate two spiders to make them usable! Meanwhile hubby cleared out the bathroom cabinet, which stood a bit lopsided he said. I hadn´t noticed, my guess is that husband mine, self-declared caretaker, was bored- again. Good thing is that I am not bored easily, so I will leave lots of work to him, and he loves it! And just when I was about finishing this entry my sense of hearing noticed the soft murmur of rainfall. That´s good- I won´t have to water the plants remaining in the garden, and the palm trees won´t get more water to drown again, because they are safely stored on the terrace...

... that three young ladies (not that young, they are all over 25) can win the literary quiz of the local library when none of them does actually read? But daughter and her friends managed to do so- their only preparation was doing literary quizzes online until three in the morning the night before. But they made it, and all that after I had a laughing fit of epic proportions during the drive to the airport, when she told me of their endeavour. Good grieve, what is it with today´s world...
Today I woke at six thirty to the sound of the excavator banging against the few remaining walls of the old house. I ignored the noise and slept till eight- have been up to watch the first three parts of a 6-episode series, so went to bed rather later than earlier, absolutely not what I had originally planned.
The day was sunny and mild from morning on, but not as warm as they had promised. Hubby was off to sister dearest, who was not able to operate their heating. So there was plenty of time for me to do the remaining pruning of the monstera- half of the plant went into the organic bin. I did not wear garden gloves and have some itching red spots on my forearms now- should have googled early enough to realise that the plant´s juice is toxic. I also cleaned the windows in the bathroom and reorganised the plants on the windowsill, so that poor monstera will get more light. Did the same with the plants in the kitchen. Sorted out foodstuff that had made it over expiry date. Quite a lot of it followed the monstera leaves, I won´t risk a bad stomach. No cooking today- hubby had bought Grammelknödel at our butcher- the best ones I have eaten by far! And then I rested a bit. I only woke, when my toes felt cold, because the sun was already behind the mountain range and the window was still wide open. I quickly closed it- not that the lot of ladybugs sitting on the window frame would make it into our bedroom! The late afternoon was spent with carpet beating (new hobby) and cutting some of the hydrangea blooms I want to spray black for Halloween decoration. The house is ready, even though it´s most frequent guests will be absent. I think I just have started to hate the dratted autumn holidays...

Yesterday the father of a friend died at the ripe age of 89.

wiseheart might or might have not seen him on TV many years ago in one of those court shows everyone seemed to watch then. Well, not me, I must have been otherwise occupied! He was a barrister and author of law books, a funny person, only that the last years had been hard on him (his wife in a wheelchair after a heavy stroke, one of his daughters admitted to a mental health clinic). When dementia hit him hard it was a blessing for him, but definitely not for our friend. I still vividly remember those long evenings spent at the lake shore with plenty of food and wine... when we left for our lodgings, he was talking Salzburger dialect and I Frankish. And he had those strange eyebrows with longish hair, a few of them growing straight upwards, which gave him a bit of a diabolic look. We won´t do the 350 kilometres drive for the funeral- we are simply too old for such bleak occasions. There´s enough of those going on in our neighbourhood...
I was lucky that the drive to the airport was done without fog. On the drive back home I noticed tiny drops of wetness covering the windscreen, and when I got up at eight everything was grey and stayed this way all day long, even though we were supposed to get sun from midday on. Well, maybe tomorrow, the last day of this year´s golden October, before real autumn with fog and darkness will strike. I do not even want to think of the oncoming weekend, when we will switch back to standard time, and evening will fall in after five in the afternoon. At least the trees are rather rebellious this year, quite a lot of them refuse to change from green to brownish colours. That´s strange, and even more so because the rebellious ones live up the hills, while the trees in the gardens around are quicker with changing colours.
I did some decorating in the conservatory, to distract myself from being bone tired. Found that the batteries of the hanging candles have to be changed- where is hubby, when I need him? Surely you won´t want me climb a ladder! Oh well, hubby was outside in the garden, dragging the palm trees from the garden wall onto the terrace. That was nice of him, even though temperatures won´t drop that much during night. Four degrees even the lemon trees can endure, before they have to get brought inside!
What is it with the pattern tutorials on Facebook? Found a new one which looked promising. But only until I noticed that part of the instruction for doing the heel was missing. Definitely not funny- must be the newest trick- draw clicks then steer people over to Etsy and make them pay for the pattern. Bite me! I can figure the pattern out by studying the pictures! Will do so tomorrow, when I am more awake!

Demolition work started at eight in the morning. Digger operator must have a heart for all those elderly people around. Aren´t many here which are not yet in retirement. Another reason that work started late was that it is so dark already in the morning. Today I got up at seven fifteen and had to turn the lights on for the walk down to the kitchen. Prepared breakfast, read the newspaper, did a tricky sudoku. I did care little about the noise outside, but the cats of our neighbours did. They came from the terrace, from the entrance door, sat on the windowsills and meowed loudly to be let in. Only Fini stayed at home, which is good. Fini is the bane of all other cats here- taller, fatter, very dominant. I´ve seen only one fight she did not win- it was the fight for the salmon´s skin. So one cat after another entered, got petted, got a goodie meant for Sony, left, came back soon after. Maybe they wanted to watch me finish the cat scarf, probably it was too loud for them outside or the digger blocked their hunting grounds- how would I know! But it´s nice to have cats for petting without having to feed them!
Today was a very nice day. Sunny, warm (20 degrees), and since the cats wanted in anyway the terrace door stayed open until four in the afternoon, when the sun hid behind the range of hills. After lunch I was off in my car to buy a book in the bookstore, which they needed to order. So nothing new then. I now know why so many people order at Amazon. Had I done so, the book would be here in our house on Monday. In the shop it´s Tuesday, and only if I am lucky. And I have to drive- again. I am pretty sure that the new tax for parcels our government established will only go into the public purse but won´t help local traders...
Back home I stitched the cat head onto the scarf and darned in the last threads. The picture I will take tomorrow. Hubby has sent me one, but things are acting up again, my mobile won´t let me open LJ and hides all Whatsapp photos from my PC. Not even the path hubby sent me to follow does work anymore. I think I want a new mobile...

Rain started during night. Usually, I will get a decent sleep then, because I love the sound of raindrops hitting the roof of the carport. Well, not today- hubby insisted that he needed to close the bedroom window- it was too cold, he said. We had twelve degrees during night. The night before we had been down to four, and he did not complain. I should insist on separate bedrooms! I already dread those long months of winter and early spring, when the windows will stay closed all night long, and all I will get will be hubby softly or not so softly snoring!

Rain did not go away until late afternoon. Hubby harvested three apples I had overseen (the only ones with no tiny caterpillars aka butterflies-to-be inside) and came back in, spreading mud all over the tiles. At least I had a job to do when he was off to do grocery shopping. Even knitting did not work out as it should have- when I measured the scarf yesterday it had the length I needed. Over night that darn thing must have shrunk and I had to add twenty more rows. Besides, it was a rather dark day and knitting needs light, especially when black yarn is involved. It got better in the afternoon, so I skipped my after-lunch nap and unsettled hubby by keeping up my knitting. At least, one paw and the tail got finished. Son number three called in the early afternoon and invited his family for the holidays. With DiL2 and her prodigy off to Romania I thought hubby and I would finally have a quiet Halloween evening, with only a few youngsters coming for trick-or-treating. Now family number three will act as a substitute. Elsa can very well vocally replace her absent cousins…

BTW: Hubby forgot to tell me that Flavius missed his second cello lesson yesterday afternoon. His mum found him covered with pustules in the morning and had his poor brother walk back home from clarinet lesson all alone, to be able to stay with her youngest. That is a long walk, indeed! Well, hubby would have gladly picked the boy up to bring him home! Now DiL is very upset that the mysterious illness might spread over to Cassian after incubation period. With a skin like this he would not be allowed to board a plane. This would be a veritable disaster (even though Cassian has made it clear that he wants to stay at home). Poor girl was up at an ungodly hour- she posted on FB at nine, probably sitting in the waiting room of their paediatrician. She did not tell us which illness has befallen her son, and what to expect for the near future. Maybe her sister, a make-up artist, can give her tips how to cover those pustules with make-up!

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We´re all mad here

Welcome to the asylum

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This feels very much like winter...

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My skin is old

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October at its finest

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Rainy day