Happy Labor Day!

It's Labor Day here in the U.S. For many, it's a day to swim, play games, and barbeque. For me, it's the first day of Halloween season!

The driveway lights have been changed to orange and purple. Skeleton lights have been hung in the art room. I'm about to put one of the Halloween wreaths on the front door.

However, I need to wait until DH mows the grass before I put out the inflatables.

And to top it off, it'll be chill enough this evening to enjoy a pumpkin spice latte!

Life, The Movies, and Everything

Last week is the first week DH and I haven't gone to the cinema in a month. Instead, we crashed over the holiday weekend. We caught up on a few chores, but we spent most of our time as recliner potatoes and eating good food.

However, we did watch Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on streaming. It was a rather adorable gender-bender of tropes. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez were absolutely cute as best friends. We also plowed through the second seasons of Picard and Ted Lasso.

My crimping tool and crimp tubes arrived over the weekend. While Tacky Glue on knots works well, it's not as an attractive finish for beaded bookmarks. I'll be working on those for an hour or two every day until I can get my arts room cleaned out and arranged to my liking. I say "arts" because there's Barbie face painting and hair rerooting in addition to the sewing and beadwork. Plus the stickers I plan to design will be a wacky mix of Dia de Los Muertos and Barbenheimer.

Yes, I already bought the t-shirt above. It's available at TeeFury.com

Why am I going to all this trouble? I need something to do besides writing and crocheting during movies and TV at home in order to keep my mind active and my fingers nimble. I want to be as crochety and active as FIL and the dad of DH's best friend when I hit 90.

Halloween Is Coming

It feels a little weird writing a Halloween story at the beginning of August. Somehow, it felt normal while working on it in July, but I was on the Oregon Coast. The cooler weather, the fog, and gallons of coffee and tea helped a lot to provide the appropriate mood.

But now, I'm in Ohio. It's in the 80's. The humidity is running between 75 and 90 percent. And everyone is either cramming in their last summer trips or freaking out about  school starting.

Or in some cases, both.

But I love the Halloween season, in case you hadn't noticed over the last fourteen years I've been writing this blog. And on Labor Day weekend, the decorations are coming out!

So this story will get me in the mood enough to clean the house so it's ready to be decorated. Maybe I need to place some Halloween music while I'm working on this story to help it along.

Happy Labor Day

I've spent Labor Day weekend doing...labor. DH and his sisters rented a moving truck to deliver the bigger furniture they wish to keep from the parent's house to their houses. And yes, the spouses helped with the heavy lifting. That doesn't bother me one bit.

What does bother me is friggin' Christmas stuff in the stores two months before Halloween! Yes, it does make me want to kidnap the Sandy Claws and stuff him in a bag!

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 180 - Happy Labor Day!

We're getting some unexpected thunderstorms, so it's a good day to curl up with the puppy and write.

I hope everyone is enjoying their three-day weekend!

Mondays, Labor Days, and Tornado Sirens

It's the first Monday of September, which means it's Labor Day here in the good ole' U.S. of A. It also means the monthly testing of the town's tornado sirens.

At 10 a.m.

After a firetruck had been in our complex's parking lot until after 3 a.m.

And parked right outside our window.

With the lights flashing.

No, we weren't sure what was going on, and frankly, we didn't want to.

That's the problem with living in an apartment. Sometimes you end up with skeevy neighbors.

But it's also a symptom of modern life in rural America. The folks in this town with a living-wage job either work white-collar for THE MAJOR EMPOYER or blue-collar for the handful of decent factory jobs that are left. The rest try to make do with a combination of minimum wage jobs.

And that dramatic range shows in our neighbors.

Unless they're like DH and me and they work from home. Okay, maybe not like DH and me when the neighbors are selling drugs instead of fantasy books.

*sigh*

So I will continue nodding in a friendly way to the neighbors, and not ask too many questions of them.

And write my books.

On Labor Day.

Happy Labor Day!

For those of you with today off, I do hope you enjoy your time with friends and family, or by yourself if that's your thing.

But if you're out and about today, please be extra nice to the hotel maids, life guards, retail clerks and all the other poor folks who must work on this holiday in order to feed their kids.

Happy Labor Day

What's your plans for Labor Day? Maybe a picnic? A cook-out with your friends and family? I can already smell the smokers and grills heating up for the massive amount of food to be barbequed by the neighbors in a couple of hours.

As you eat those delicious hamburgs and brisket, give a little prayer of thanks to those who made this day possible. Those carpenters, coal miners, and folks from every other industry who marched, unionized and fought for decent wages, reasonable work hours, and safety procedures. The social workers who battled to get children out of factories and into school. The folks who strove to turn a local acknowledgement of the American worker into a national holiday.

And I'll be thinking of you lucky dogs as I head off to work this afternoon. LOL