The wind blew, the lightning flashed, and it rained. One tenth of an inch. A tiny bit anticlimactic. Now the wind is blowing like it has something to celebrate.

The wind is still howling this morning. Knocking the trees around and just generally being a nuisance. There’s a good chance it will rain today. But I’ve been there before. And when you’re in a time of drought, it can be a cruel hoax.

The south wind blew yesterday. Shook the trees. Chased leaves across the yard. Ran it’s fingers through my hair. It’s still at it this morning. A mass of air rushing across the land in a big hurry.

In the beginning, I wrote about the little things. The feel of a breeze. A trail in the grass. A star in the sky. Then one day. I wrote about the big thing.

I’m still reveling in the miracle of the eyes. The removal of the cataracts that dulled my vision, made reading impossible and driving at night difficult. Some days it just makes me want to swoon with how beautiful the world is in all its colors and light.

I set out for Houston yesterday morning with a nice covering of winter gray clouds and a north wind. I like that short light, when you know the sun barely has enough energy to get up over the horizon.

The project bug bit again yesterday. I think it was the cool weather that did the trick. I resurfaced the bottom of the old water trough in preparation for getting it back into water feature service. And I took down the delipidated wooden gates that flanked the opening into the back lots…

It’s raining, but we’re not setting any records. It’s cold too. A front has arrived. It will be chill all week. About time. It’s fall. October. Let’s do this. I have my long sleeve shirts at the ready.

I had a late night of music and roadie work. I’m getting good at wrapping cables with a little thumb flip to keep them straight.

Grapes. I’ve always loved them. In my youth, you only got them when they came into season, and my mother bought green grapes. No idea what variety they were. They were just grapes.

I have no accomplishments to brag on today, except one. It’s looks as though on November 16 our family will grow by two.

I did it. Fixed my dryer. It took a $25 part, two weeks of waiting, and a YouTube video. I was all set to just buy another dryer. But as I checked out the prices, I thought what’s the worst that could happen.

It’s sort of strange. The more I do around the house the more there is to do. Which, I guess, is just part of owning a home. There are things to do.

This is probably getting old, but I have another gate story.

Pro tip. Going from a dark to light paint will cause coverage problems. The dark paint like’s being seen. My gate was black. Now it’s battleship gray. I have lots of touch up to do.

There is something like fall in the air. It is cool outside. It’s a nice way to be greeted in the morning. In addition, I woke up to find my collegiate football team pulled one out late last night after I went to sleep. Good for them.

Helped bury the mother of a friend yesterday. Sad business as always. She left behind a husband of seventy years and a home she’d lived in for fifty-six. An anomalous couple in this day and age of turnover marriages and turnover homes…

Yesterday I walked up a hill in daylight and down again in the dark. Two miles in and two miles out. I wanted to see a sunset from the top of the hill overlooking the Pedernales river valley and the Hill Country out west.

Big doings in and around town. Over at the headquarters of the Pedernales Electric Co-operative crews are dressing the trees with lights. Really. They’ll finish in time to turn them on the day after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, down the road toward Fredericksburg, they’re strangling traffic.

I like Aspens, Magpies, and Steller’s Jays. The tree and two birds are things I’d never seen before I went to Colorado. Now that I’ve seen them, I want to see them again.