Fall Color is Over

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning and then the sun went away, but it was back in the 50s today, which now feels warm. I meant to get out and take one more round of pictures of Fall color, but I did not make it. Everyone's yard and the streets are full of leaves. Some people have already diligently raked theirs up and there is now a moron across the street trying to use a leaf blower on his. I'm thinking that his leaf blower is going to break before he finishes, since there are too many leaves, some of them are really big, and it rained yesterday morning and the day before, so the leaves are heavy.

AMC has a new series called The Walking Dead and I stayed up and watched the first three episodes last night until midnight. I don't like horror, but I seem to like zombie movies. It isn't a new story, but it was done pretty well. It took me a while to figure out where I've seen the main actor, he was in one of my favorite movies, Love Actually. I don't know if it was too much zombies, or staying up too late, but after the show I could not sleep and then I woke up with a cramp in my shoulder and then I got up early with a headache. This did not make a good start to my day and I have not been able to get over it. (The dying leaf blower is not helping!)

There were two jobs posted with the state of Idaho. I finished one application and submitted it last night and am more than half way through the other one.

I am close to finishing the latest painting and I am starting to like it more. There was just too much in it that I had to lay in and it took a long time to look like something.

I have a mixed opinion of President Bush as President, but I have really enjoyed watching his interviews to promote his book this week. I wish he spoke up before on some of the topics he discussed this week, but then maybe he did and I never got the opportunity to see or read it. He looks like a content and peaceful guy today. One interview was with President Bush and Laura Bush, and I really do miss Laura Bush.

The next enlightenment topic is Agelessness from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll,

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "As I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
Pray, what is the reason of that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—
Allow me to sell you a couple?"

"You are old," said the youth, "And your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"

I do not like Alice in Wonderland. What a disrespectful kid and a mean old man. Where is the enlightenment? Today I am feeling the aches and pains of being old, but I went out and raked the last of the leaves to add to the tops of the leaf bags so the trash man could pick them up today. Raking leaves and working outside in the cold made me feel invigorated, if not ageless.