it's coming...

It seems like I no more than put up a fall picture at the top of my blog when the leaves all blew off the trees and now it’s fairly much wintery looking.  *sigh* Winter is such a dreary season.  The hills look so bare when the trees drop their leaves.  Fortunately we have some pines among the hardwoods, so I’m trading the fall picture for one of pine trees I took today.  This is how I pretend we aren't even going to have winter this year.

seasonless photo

Gracie has been a bit keyed up lately with all the nasty weather brought in by the hurricane.  She doesn’t like being outside in the cold rain, so she tends to stay in too much and then she gets destructive if the humans in the house don’t play with her and keep her entertained.  She ripped the curtains off the window, shredded a whole roll of paper towels all over the stairs, and pretty much destroyed the wool rug I try to keep in the hallway in front of the door. 

play with me

Today was a lovely day, so Someone and I took Miss Gracie out to Greenbo Lake for a long hike through the woods.  She thoroughly enjoyed it; we all did.  Except for a few people fishing around the marina, we had the place to ourselves.  The trail was covered with leaves so we had to be careful not to trip over rocks and roots that were hidden by leaves.  I wish we could let Gracie off her leash when we’re out in the woods with no people around, but if she took off to chase a deer or rabbit, we might never see her again.  I hope she would have enough sense to find her way back to us, but it’s hard to know for sure what she might do. 

Someone is off work and the girls have no school until Wednesday because Tuesday is election day.  They are all in vacation mode, but this week is just another week for me.  I really only have a few days of vacation left for 2012, but next year will be my thirtieth anniversary with my employer and I will get five more days of vacation – a total of 30 vacation days.  WOW!  Pretty awesome.  Does it seem like 30 years?  Definitely, yes.