Daily Notes- October 15th

Today would be my father's birthday- well, it still is even if he has passed. My brother's birthday is Friday.  I sent a card- I think the exact same one I sent last year and might even have written the same words inside.  I didn't realize it until the card was already on it's way.  Oh well.

The leaves are falling.  In the woods the paths are covered in colorful leaves in brown, yellow, orange and red.  The paths are also littered with many many acorns.  This morning's paper had an article about the cyclical nature of acorn production.  Nothing about the coming of a particularly bad winter. but I think it does- many acorns equal a bad Winter.  I don't see evidence of any deer eating them in the woods.  No deer poop.  Four black crows came to pick at them the other morning.  I did see the shadows of three or four deer along the property line behind G's work shed last week.  Dusk.  They were walking fast. Into the woods.  Maine is barely civilized.

My little Honda got it's annual inspection sticker this morning.  The fine for not having a current one is $100 a month.  The sticker was $18.50.  Ten years old. 34K in mileage.  I think they just check for rusted bumpers and fenders and working lights and brakes.  Mostly they want to get the old junkers like my husband's truck off the road.

I am reading a book.  I tried not to read it- tried to think it wasn't something I would read.  But it has caught at me.  Pulled me along.  Five or more families- separate but touching through time.  Regina Porter- The Travelers.  I am nearly to the end and I think I might miss these people when the last page comes and goes.  It's not that I like them or am comfortable with their troubles, but still, I will miss them.  And I think I might copy out the ancient Hungarian alphabet.  To remind me of my grandparents.  The pages of the Vietnam War- and the years after. 1971.  The unemployment, the drugs and the bodies lying in the streets of Atlanta where we were living in 1971.  It comes back to me, reading those pages.  So...a hard book to read. But it goes back and forth in Time.  So, I guess I already know the end.

I collected more acorn caps this morning when Ri and I went out to get the paper.  My walking buddy has more avocado pits for me now that they are one dollar again.  I feel like a squirrel. Tucking my bounty into sandwich bags in the freezer.