Friday 7 November

It certainly has gotten mild. No hat, no gloves, open jacket. It rained yesterday but it was a warm rain, even walking home in it in the dark! Getting home in the dark. I am slowly becoming accustomed to it.

The mild weather is odd, but not unpleasant. I wore my rain boots today. I am tired from the week. I was quite brain dead by last evening, the kind of tired where my brain shuts down. Just shuts down. No worries, no cares, because my brain has shut itself off. I become a body, a pure animal, taking care of earthly needs with no thoughts rising beyond the present moment and the present movement. I get that tired.

We have been very busy at work. We have lots of orders to get out. The economy may be in the toilet but people still buy scented candles. They are cheering and they are comforting. I talked to a slightly nasty woman from Texas the morning after the election. It was almost as if -- McCain lost and she was upset and she wanted a Kobo candle to make herself feel better --

Anyway, I slept well despite some cat nonsense. Out of small pity, I let in Topaz and he has this urge to be let out in the middle of the night. I guess I had forgotten that. I also let in Inca because she scratched and cried at the door, and I usually let her in. She's all snuffly and sneezy again. And she wasn't bad except sometimes she puts her fuzzy face in my face when she wants to get under the covers. So there was a bit more disturbance than I cared to have but I still slept well enough, and certainly didn't almost oversleep like I have the past 2 mornings.

My thoughts just raced in 10,000 directions between the bathroom and back out here to the table, as I tried to navigate around Nick, yowling endlessly. What is his deal? I have discovered that if I leave the bottom drawer of the oven open all the time, Nick can no longer yank open the oven door. Which is a good thing because I was afraid he'd ruin the oven door.

I did not go to choir again. I was simply too tired. It was also dark and raining and I didn't finish my supper until 7. It puts me way behind with the singing but I guess on some level, I just don't care. I farted around taking photos of those incredible yellow calla lilies J gave me, and sent 2 of them to M and posted one of them in my album.

I think it is safe to say I am dangerously sick of cats making chaos and noise -- Nick -- and dogs endlessly bodily grooming. I have already yelled at Nick and at Bella. Fergus is out. I cleaned him with vinegar last night and it gave him such relief it made me think maybe I should be doing it 2x a day. This is such a tricky thing to gauge. He was digging away at himself before I did it, and was quite calm afterward. I think the rain and the wet didn't help at all.

I am sick of my hair too. I keep thinking I might like it cut and then I think to let it grow a little more and see how it looks. The cut, of course, all comes down to money. Once you get into the haircut thing -- oh it's such a pain. The woman who I like to have do it is so hard to track down. And then there's the money. Have I mentioned the money? Have I mentioned I carried home an 18lb. bag of dog food, groceries, and an umbrella through the dark rain last night?