Happy Halloween...

...sort of.  For the first time in nearly 20 years, there are no Halloween decorations in our house and we're not having a costume party. (As they say in baseball... just wait till next year.)

The construction guys have just finished up the work on one of the upstairs bathrooms. True to the previous owner's talent (or lack thereof) when that bathroom was added to this century-old house, the proper supports were not put underneath the flooring. As a result, that bathroom started to sag and separate from the house. The separation was less than an inch, but still, left the way it was, it would have continued to sag from year to year until it fell into the yard.

True to the commitment from local construction companies (or lack thereof) it took many weeks to get someone to come out here to inspect the problem and come up with a solution.  One company wanted to tear down the entire bathroom and re-build it. I nipped that idea in the bud.... we have three other bathrooms upstairs so we didn't need that fourth one replaced if it couldn't be repaired. If it had to be torn down, then my solution was just to close up the wall and be done with it.  Another company came out here for a look-see and was determined to "save that there cute little room" by jacking it up a bit, adding the proper supports from underneath and setting it down again so it would be correctly supported and level. And lo and behold... they did it. The outside is perfect again because they replaced the wood siding, solid support beams were added underneath the structure, and the inside looks as if it hadn't even been touched by a hammer. (As they say in the south.... Bless their hearts.)

Not only did we have excellent workers here who came on time on the days when they said they'd be here, but one of the carpenters noticed all the maintenance that needed to be done on the exterior of this big old house. One thing led to another... he and my husband had a long talk.... my husband showed him the rooms over our barn... and in two weeks' time, that carpenter and his wife will be moving into the apartment on the second floor of the barn.  In lieu of rent, we will have a live-in handyman who can take care of the relentless to-do list that comes along with this century-old house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works out to be a long-standing arrangement. One can only hope.

So... not having a Halloween party here.... there's only one thing to do:  decorate the house for Christmas, which is what I've been doing all week.  I typically have Halloween decorations up for all of September and October, then right after Halloween gets packed away, Christmas comes out for November and December.  As the Christmas decorations came out of the boxes, some of them were relegated to boxes to donate to the thrift store, and other things now have price tags on them for my booth at the antique shop. And even with all of that, there are enough Christmas decorations here to do two houses.

Savannah watched me taking out the nutcrackers and Santas, and she barked at some of the larger boxes as I set them around the house. I use decorated gift boxes to hold all the Christmas items, and as I put out the decorations, I remove whatever is on the tables and shelves and pack them in those same decorative boxes. The boxes become part of the Christmas decor as they sit in the corners of the rooms, most often stacked two or three high. This will be Savannah's second Christmas... she was just a puppy last year and managed to restrain herself from touching the decorations.  Every time she got too close to one of the figurines or ornaments last year, I told her 'No Savannah No!' and she backed away. I'm hoping she remembers that for this year, otherwise I'll be sounding out that 'No Savannah No!' from now till the end of December.

But... today is Halloween... and I'm hoping the little kids from down the hill come up in their costumes for Trick-or-Treating. They did last year, and I had little Halloween gifts for them, as well as some sugar-free snacks one of the mothers brought up to us so we wouldn't give out candy. I assured the mothers that I never give out candy for Halloween. I've always had a supply of little toys or gifts or books for the kids on Halloween. I just always figured that kids get enough candy from everyone else, so maybe they'd like a different sort of surprise.  I bought coloring books and crayons for the kids this year, so that will be their Halloween treat.

My own Halloween treat will be to look forward to next year, and then I'll take the Halloween tree out of the closet on Labor Day weekend, along with the pumpkins and witches and black cats. Except for the two big orange metal pumpkins that I put outside by the walkway, The Great Pumpkin will be very disappointed in this house if he happens to come by this evening. But.... just wait till next year, Charlie Brown!

Monday stuff...

As I type, two carpenters are up on our roof fixing the supports underneath one of the upstairs bathrooms. They started last week, arrived on time each day, and worked all day long with a short break for lunch. Wonder of wonders... we found people who really do what they have promised. Pardon my sarcasm, but we've not been lucky with too many workers up here in these hills.

With all the repairs being done up there on the roof, one of the workers told us that we don't need a new roof yet, which we thought we did need because of a recent leak during a heavy rain. The problem, says the carpenter, is not the roof, it's the flashing. It was installed incorrectly and when a heavy rain hits that particular part of the house, we have a leak in the kitchen. Every problem we have with this house goes back to the previous owner who did the work and didn't do it correctly. By this time, that fact shouldn't surprise us.

But on the bright side, the work is now getting done the right way.... and it won't be long till the flashing is fixed and then we can take those ridiculous blue tarps off of the roof above the kitchen. I'm trying my best to love this big old house again because I know that my husband does not want to move.

We drove to a little town called Milano on Saturday... our young friend Corey was there at Morning Star Ranch with her horse Tallahatchie. Corey and her horse-loving friends go up there for riding and competitions. The ranch was filled with horses and trailers, riders and visitors, and that 166-acre property was teeming with enthusiasm and excitement as they handed out awards for the events. Gary and I met Corey's horse (Hatch for short) for the first time, and we were impressed with the bond between 'our' little Corey and that huge horse. Hatch's eyes follow Corey wherever she goes and he puts his head on her shoulder as if he's a puppy.  Tallahatchie was very young when Corey first got him, and now he's nearly full-grown and handsome with his buttermilk coloring and chocolate-colored mane. Corey is very much in charge of her horse and very confident in her ability to handle him. Hatch is one lucky horse, but I know that Corey would say that she's the lucky one to have such a good horse.

I was very impressed with Morning Star Ranch.... the property is private and secluded, way off the main highway... long trails for riding, obstacle courses for the competitions, clean corrals for the horses to rest in, lots of land for the trailers, and very nice and clean accommodations for eating and sleeping for the riders. After seeing the ranch, I can understand why Corey likes going up there so much with Hatch.

Halloween is next week.... no decorations in the house here, which is a first. Actually, not having a costume party for Halloween is also a first.  With all the work going on outside, my heart was just not in a party mood.  I did put out two huge metal pumpkins near the walkway, though... mainly for the little kids down the hill who will no doubt come trick-or-treating.  I bought them coloring books and crayons instead of Halloween candy. Do little kids still color? Will they think the crayons are candy? Well, little kids should color. I'll have to remember to tell them not to eat the crayons.

Books, and more books...

I recently read a memoir titled "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson which affected me so much that I just couldn't bring it upstairs to my library and file it under the W's.  The book was so beautifully written, and so profoundly positive, that it needed to be showcased, not merely shelved in alphabetical order.

'Brown Girl Dreaming' resulted in 'White Girl Rearranging Her Library.'  I started on one side of the room, taking all the books dealing with black history and black lives... I lined them up in order in the middle of the room. Then I went to the opposite side of the room and found all the biographies and memoirs of black people that I've admired over the years and those that I've recently discovered (like Woodson).  When all of those books were in the middle of the room, their number surprised me. All of those great books were just hidden on the shelves in ABC order. Surely, all these books needed to be together on a special bookcase, surrounded by a few pieces of my African wood carvings. Showcased... not just shelved.

Some of my favorite books are now on that bookcase... "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave; "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines; "Someone Knows My Name" by Lawrence Hill; "Gloryland" by Shelton Johnson; "Cry, The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton; "Clover" by Dori Sanders; "Cane River" and "Red River" by Lalita Tademy; "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver;  "Jubilee" by Margaret Walker; "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker; the biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Dawson ("Life Is So Good"), the Delany Sisters ("Having Our Say"), Hattie McDaniel, James McBride, Solomon Northrup ("Twelve Years A Slave"), Sidney Poitier, Oseola McCarty ("Simple Wisdom for Rich Living"), and of course Jacqueline Woodson.  There are many more... that bookcase is wider than most of the others so I have plenty of room to add more books along the way.

I have an old copy of "To Sir, With Love," a vintage copy of "The Lilies of The Field," and a very old edition of "Roots," and a special edition of "A Raisin In The Sun." My treasured copy of "Out Of Africa" is on that bookcase now, its pages alive with memories of Kenya ("I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills....")  Does any good reader worth their books not know that unforgettable first sentence?

When I walk up the stairs to my third floor library, the first thing I see now at the top of the staircase is a carved wood figure of a proud African woman... she stands guard on that special bookcase protecting those books that I love so much.

In this country bubble...

I went to the post office today to mail a card to my friend J in England. Rather than going to the 'real' post office and wait on their usually long lines, I took the card to the local hardware store which has a postal service window in the back of the store. They don't accept packages going overseas, but they will take letters and card-sized envelopes.

On the envelope, I wrote the name of J's town and postal code, along with the words "England, UK." After about two minutes of watching the clerk typing on his keyboard and searching the screen, the conversation that followed went something like this:

"UK stands for Ukraine, right?" said the clerk.
"No. UK stands for The United Kingdom," said I.
"Oh... yeah... but the country is Ukraine, right?"
"The country is England," said I.
"England is a country? Since when?" said the clerk.
"Since about 1015," said I.
"Wow. Cool. But UK is still the Ukraine, right?" said the clerk.
"Not hardly," said I.  Then I suggested he type Great Britain into his computer, which he did.
"Oh yeah. There it is. Great Britain. Y'all might want to write that on this here envelope so it doesn't end up in Ukraine," he said.

I resisted the urge to tell the clerk that between the little post office window in this little hardware store in this little town and the post offices in and around The United Kingdom, someone along the way will surely know that UK doesn't stand for Ukraine, and England has been a country since the Vikings nearly destroyed it and the successors of Alfred The Great came along and tidied things up a bit.

Give me a blessed royal break.

Another month going by...

...and there is not one Halloween decoration in this house. I've always decorated for Halloween on Labor Day weekend. That didn't happen this year. I was consumed with dog and puppy, plus concerned with the work that needs to be done on one of the upstairs bathrooms. Every time we find a mistake in the renovation of this 109-yr-old house, we sit here and curse the previous owner who didn't do it right the first time. We have had to correct many of that man's mistakes.

So now... we are finally on the work-list of a local construction company... they will come here and jack-up 'the green bathroom' and put the proper supports underneath it, then gently let the dormer back down once they have corrected the error of the previous owner's ways. Once that is done, we will call the roofing company and tell them to deliver all the materials needed for a new roof on this house. Finally, we'll be able to remove the Smurf-blue tarps from the part of the roof that's over the kitchen.  This madness has been going on since the end of May/beginning of April. Between trying to get roofing companies out here, and construction companies, and then the insurance company sent an adjuster and an engineer.... and then my husband had to do his own research and make up his mind about which company to choose.  I stayed out of it, other than to say "Can we please get this work done before Christmas?"

I figured that between the work on the dormer, and then the replacement of the roof, we'd be lucky to have everything done by Halloween. And looking at the work schedule now, we'll just about have everything finished by the time the kids down the road come up here to say "Trick or treat!"

Not exactly being in a Halloween frame of mind, I decided not to have our usual Halloween costume party this year. The decorations are sitting in the storage closet, except for the ones I gave to Corey last weekend for her own little house. I told her not to spend her money on Halloween decorations... "Just drive up here into the hills and pick out what you want from what I have."  Corey wanted to help me decorate the house for Halloween while she was here. "Not this year," I told her. "Maybe next year."   Corey drove back to Galveston with pumpkins, witches, and ghosts, purple garlands and black cats, and the haunted house I made so many years ago from a yard-sale birdhouse.  She was thrilled, and so was I.  If I can't enjoy Halloween this year, I'll be perfectly content knowing that she will.

The house has been quiet since we brought Satchmo to the shelter. We?  No.  I.  I brought him to the shelter, hoping against hope that someone would walk in and adopt that little 12-pound dog.  I was going to call them and ask, but I didn't.  Better to just let myself believe that he found his forever home and he's now the only dog in that house, which is just what he wanted.  Savannah seems to be fine without the puppy here. She's back to her 'old soul' self, not wanting to go outside at night unless I pull her a bit towards the door... then she'll go out into the grass for a quick 'visit' and run back up the steps of the porch.

I've been reading. And reading. And reading.  My pile of books-waiting-to-be-read was dwindling down some... and today I went to the thrift store and the little bookshop in town and came home with eleven books.  That happens sometimes... I either find just one book or none, or I find half of the books on my wish-list.

We had decided to rent out the apartment over the barn to two college students... we thought we'd found the perfect renters... quiet boys, nice family... except they didn't pay the rent.  We were patient and we waited. Then we lost patience when they lost their credibility because of all their excuses. As much as we hated to do it, we asked them to leave, and they did. The barn is empty again. We doubt very much we'd rent to students again.  I would still like to rent that apartment to a handyman who would take care of the property here, in exchange for rent.

The days are getting shorter.... we will soon be turning the clocks back an hour, and then the days will be shorter still.  Instead of trying to cajole Savannah into going outside at 9:00 when it's dark, I'll be doing that at 7:00 when it's dark.  And then I'll have to repeat the process at 10:00 when it's darker still.  I will soon be wishing away the winter months and counting the days till Spring when we can turn the clocks ahead an hour.

Barry Manilow has a song titled "When October Goes."  It's one of the ballads that he doesn't often sing at his concerts, but I have it on a CD.   The lyrics go something like this.... "Children running home beneath a twilight sky... oh for the fun of them, when I was one of them....... I turn my head away, to hide the helpless tears... oh how I hate to see October go."

With apologies to Manilow, I cannot wait for October to go... it's barely here and I'm wishing it away, hoping for a better November.