Things

So, the afternoon of the morning that Sophie departed, we left on a seven hour drive to Sheboygan to check on Risa's Mom's house (they are in India for 10 months) and to attend the Kohler Food and Wine Festival, which was a salve of a kind for the loss of such a dear companion. There was much good food and libation and lots of activities to bend the mind away from sorrow.

No sooner back in Duluth and I had to head to the Cities to have a couple of business discussions and check on the empty house down there. I have decided to try to rent it and hope to find a transferred executive who would like to sign a six to twelve month lease and see what the housing market looks like then. The rental market for up-scale houses is also down but I figure I have little to lose on this.

Then I was back just in time for Halloween, but had to get a piece of my neck whacked out first. My initial visit to a dermatologist up here resulted in a biopsy of a previous biopsy site that turned up a small basal cell carcinoma, so I had to go back and have a quarter-sized disk of skin snipped out. We didn't have a quarter-sized replacement handy so the doc just stitched the thing closed in a straight line, trying to keep it in line with the wrinkles she assured me will come with time. While this was a practical approach, it has left me feeling a bit tight in that spot and makes me turn my whole body instead of just my neck. It makes driving a bit of a challenge.

For Halloween, we did the traditional pumpkin/gourd carving and passed out loot to the goblins at the door before heading to a big person party at what used to be the trading floor of the Duluth Exchange many years ago. I was a little disappointed that the lights were so dim because we had taken great care to draw two vampire punctures dripping blood on the bandage that covered my little neck surgery. No one noticed.

Since then we have been doing the usual. Risa works Monday through Wednesday (and part of Thursday and Friday usually) while I think about all of the chores that I could be doing if I were not sitting in front of the computer all day reading emails, checking on FaceBook, or blogging as I am doing now.

Actually, I am in mid-chore as I do this. I am draining the rain barrels for the winter so we don't have giant ice cubes that explode their containers. Two down and one to go.

Last night we had a bit of an emergency when I went out to our worm farm in the garage to find all of the worms desperately trying to escape their home which had become too dense and damp for their liking. In addition to the mass escape attempt, the whole bin smelled bad. Not good news.

My rescue attempt involved tearing unbleached paper towels into strips that blanketed the soggy mixture, absorbing some of the excess moisture and providing some additional bedding for the little red wigglers. Today, I added more of the torn paper and will follow up with some crushed egg shells as soon as I cook up some eggs. I might have to divide the farm in two and start another bin. Don't know. All vermiculture suggestions welcome.

So long for now. Have to get busy for our "world dinner party tonight." Ciao.