Welcome to October

Well it's been a long and hot September and we're all looking forward to the cool of the fall. I worked way too hard this past month- but was rewarded with a nice trip to SF for the ADA convention. I attended some lectures and... it made me really happy to be out of the school environment. Whew... those lectures were long and sometimes painful.

So... what's new with me? For starters: we sure are getting jazzed about Halloween. We bought a second fogger and are ready to bring the pirates of old back to life on Oct 31. We're going to build a ship, have smoke burning buildings and we'll shiver the timbers off those little trick or treaters this year.

News in the neighborhood: Our long time neighbors to the East (whom we loved), moved to Kansas City today. They were such good freinds and a pleasure to live next door to. We'll miss the Easterners terribly. A new family will move in over the next several weeks. By all accounts they're a nice family and we're looknig forward to meeting them.

The "other" neighbor, to the West, abandoned their house and had it foreclosed on. I heard this in the morning and was stunned. I was away for nearly a week and getting this news floored me. They were the "not so good" neighbors... with the dirty yard and the howling dogs and all. Losing the Westerners was no great loss... but they left the house in a shambles. The back yard has an old couch sitting in it along with bags of garbage and old screen doors. Rumors abound, but everyone says the inside is worse- if that's possible. It looks like a house in the burned out part of Detroit. How soon until it gets cleaned up and has new owners? Who will they be?

That's about it. We've been stunned by the news and only time will tell. So I'll drink a glass of red wine (good for the heart- you know) and contemplate life.

On a more emotional note.. it sure has been quiet without the barking dogs all night long... so good frigging riddance! Here's a toast to getting rid of a crappy and inconsiderate family.