EDAY minus 5.

10-30-08 SHORT HILLS: For fall color, NJ is almost at peak. Today is clear and sunny but windy and cold after three days of rain, the first Nor’easter of the season. We needed gloves to walk the dogs this morning. There was a snow flurry yesterday as I was driving to Obama HQ in West Orange. The average temperatures in October, 2007 were ten degrees above normal, but this October we are one degree below normal. The heat is on, and the storm doors are up.

I’m wearing out my index finger and ear telephoning for Obama [the Messiah] trying to GOTV. That’s ‘get out the vote’ for those of you who sit on the sidelines instead of getting involved in the political process. If the voting result goes the same way as the polling indicates, if... if... if.


Blue State, Red Bush, I mean, Shrub.

The Cabinet

Now, I know it's presumptuous to even talk about the Cabinet at this time, but how about, for Sec. of Homeland Security, William Ayers.

Election Countdown.

10-24-08 SHORT HILLS: We’re back in NJ. The fall color here is developing nicely. It has been cooler this year, at this time of the year, than it was last year. We had a mild frost last night, but it was well into November last year before we had a similar one. So, the fall color was earlier and the first frost was earlier this year than last year, does that mean we’ll have a colder winter?

Judy and I have been working at Obama’s HQ in West Orange this week calling donors to get more volunteers for the final week of the campaign. The donor list is huge, and lots of people have promised to come in. The polls all look good. The predicted Electoral College results look good. [Check Pollster.com] Our fingers are crossed.



Scenery in Vermont.

Sawing and Fencing.

10-16-08 VERMONT: Last night it started to rain, and it continues this morning. The rain is washing away the fall color, but I can use the break. Judy comes up today with the goldens.

Monday I cut down five of the dead apple trees in the pasture, the sixth is sort of picturesque so I left it standing. I chained the fallen trunks, up to a foot in diameter, to the trailer hitch on the Subaru and dragged them across the road to Steve’s burn pile. When the trees fell, being dead and dried out, lots of the branches broke off. I piled them on top of the car to deliver to the burn pile. Who needs a tractor if you’ve got a Subaru? I also love my chainsaw.

Tuesday I repaired the wire fence in back of the pasture. Something, deer or moose perhaps, broke three of the five strands of wire. I found the ends, retracted from the break site, sorted out which wire was which strand, and pulled them together. They would almost meet at the break site, but there was not nearly enough to fasten together. Using extra wire and locking clamps, I put a bridging patch in each strand, sheetbends make a nice wire knot, being careful not to tangle the strands. After they were all repaired, I used tensioners to pull them taut. In the afternoon I cut down a small birch sapling to make a long rail for the wooden fence.

Yesterday I replaced the lattice at the north end of the deck that Gus had eaten. I had enough left over stuff to do the job. It was hard trying to not damage the perennials while doing the repair. Add in a bit of weeding, and it comes to three full days, close enough to a week for me.

Red Trees.

And red sky.

Reflected Glory.

10-11-08 VERMONT: Happy birthday, Alison. Imagine having your birthday in the midst of all this color. Here’s a red maple.

Even Chloe is impressed.

I forgot to mention some flowers still hanging on: hosta, geranium, centaurea, bleeding heart. Yesterday I started pulling out plant supports and garden border guards. Today I straightened out the barn ramp and lifted it up to the level of the barn floor and adjusted the barn door rollers and finished up with a little more weed wacking.

Today was just beautiful. The sky was cloudless from Gile to Lafayette and was the deepest blue. It was warm enough to work in shirt sleeves but not too hot. The only distraction was the color, back lit, front lit, side lit—I almost had to work with my eyes closed.

Paradise Regained.

10-9-08 VERMONT: I’m back up here in paradise with Chloe and Sam. Judy is still in NJ doing dog stuff with Nick and Gus. I arrived yesterday to find the house taken over by the neighbors, who we invited to stay while their house is being renovated. Ii’s nice to have the company. The addition to Steve’s and Diana’s house seems to more than double the size.

On to more important things, there were four inches of rain in the gauge when I arrived and we got another 0.35 inches last night. There has not been a frost here. Almost none of the garden plants has gone dormant, and there are still lots of flowers: roses, ecinacea, black-eyed susan, sedum, helenium, monkshood, cimicfuga, golden rod, catmint, asters, boltonia, turtlehead, feverfew, dandelion, yarrow, hollyhock, phlox, thyme, mallow, witchhazel and the others I’ve forgotten to mention.

The veggie garden is ready to be put away. I took down the electric fence, mowed the overgrown pasture around the garden, pulled out the tomatoes and their cages, pumpkins and dill, and stacked the harvested pumpkins. I also mowed around the barns, and put up the storm doors.

Big news, Steve looked out the window a few days ago at dawn and saw what appeared to be a person with an umbrella standing by the pond. When the person moved, she turned into a bull moose who trotted off to the woods.

The color, fall foliage color, is good now, which is much earlier than the last few years.

In the blogosphere, I saw a certain person described as a "right wing robot" and in another blog as a "mud-slinging marionette", but you'll have to guess that person's identity.

New blooms: cimicfuga, witchhazel, asters.

Here's some nice color across the road, and two happy girls.

Recognition.

10-5-08 SHORT HILLS: Meanwhile back at the election, I’ve figured out of whom Palin reminds me.

She is glib, superficial, speaks in a rush of tossed and chopped word salad, full of inconsistencies, half-truths, distortions and outright lies, and has a sneering veneer and a regional accent. Her inadequacies are papered over by her cheerleaderish cheeriness. She is unprepared for office or debate except for talking point hash. Big hint—she uses “nucular” for nuclear.

She is W redux. If you liked the last eight years, then go with this reincarnation of the worst president in history. But, you say, she is only the veep candidate. Given McCain’s age and health status as a melanoma sufferer, there’s a significant chance, maybe 15% or 20%, of his not completing his term of office should [choke/gasp] he be elected.

As Sarah Silverman says, “Tell your NaNa to vote for Obama.”