Fall is my favorite time of year.  The leaves here are just beginning to turn except for a few small maples that are bright red.  I was going to get out and walk with my camera and my little grandgirl Sunday but the "light" rains turned into a monsoon. Half an inch in very little time.  We needed it. We rented a movie instead. Later I wondered why I didn't take some pictures in the rain. I give up easily.

My eldest was born in October.  He'll be 45 soon.  He did not get the job he hoped for and is kind of bummed but has several other applications in the works. It's worrisome though.

My grandgirl Julia just turned 17.  The person who got this cake is a lover of thick frosting.  Not being a frosting fan at all saved me from gobbling cake.  My fellow grandmother Sally who loves frosting scraped the frosting off my chunk and graciously ate it herself thereby saving my diet.  Julia had hoped for jewelry and makeup for her birthday.  She was taken to Macy's foo foo counter and was Clinique'd and Estee Lauder'd in abundance.


 

She huffs and she puffs and she blew them all out.

Then she unwrapped her gifts of many nice things.  Happy Birthday sweet girl whose birthday is 9/11 and reminds us that some good things happened on that day.

In spite of birthday cake I've lost 4.5 pounds in the last four weeks.  It's harder than I thought.  I've made it to the gym three days a week and am up to l8 minutes on the recumbent bike.  Since I could only do 5 minutes when I got there this is a big improvement. The old airways have loosened up under some exercise.  Feels like progress most days.

Fall is Coming - maybe

The is in the low 70's now and predicted to stay that way for the next week.  Trees are turning color a little and leaves are falling that don't look like they fell just from lack of water.  It may rain.  Much as we need it and I like it I hope it waits until after Monday as the County Fair is on and it would be nice if it doesn't get rained out.  I plan to go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow, I haven't been since last year. I've added a lot more veggies to my diet and those fresh off the farm ones are lovely. Been shopping up my fruits and veggies from a couple of local stores run by home grown farmers here. I will grieve when the peaches go away but I did stash away many bags of blueberries in my freezer.

My oldest son Chris is waiting to hear about a new job he applied for last week. I sure hope he's successful. I know he wants and would like it.  Meanwhile he is finishing up his art for the annual fund raiser for ArtWalla here.  There's a nice show at a winery and both ArtWalla and the artists make money from it.

Son David is getting excited about the coming fall salmon run in these here parts.  I'll be out with him on a couple of these trips.  I have my "special" fishing gloves, actually they are just very tight gardening gloves with a rubbery surface so I can keep my grip on the reel when I haul in my next big one. I hope, I hope, I hope.

A catch from 2014

October 2015

I think he is channeling his grandfather who was a lifelong fisherman and a fisheries biologist.  I've been sorting through our old photos trying to find one in particular with no luck.  But I found this one. Dad spent his college summers doing research in Alaska.  Later when I was in high school he still was spending summers in Alaska only on the Bering Sea as a research observer on foreign vessel. often on Japanese ships. He had learned to speak Japanese by then.

Dad in Alaska sometime in the 1930's

I truly hope your Labor Day weekend is good and that you will all stay safe and enjoy yourselves.