Greetings!

I am writing from a TA Center somewhere in New York. It’s cold enough for me to be wearing leggings, fuzzy socks, and layering on the fleece, but with it getting down to 39 degrees tonight, I know I will be turning on the diesel heater. I filled it up today, something like two and a half gallons. I can get four or five nights on that if I am willing to be a bit cold.

Speaking of filling up, I put gas in twice. The first time, I grabbed it for $5.99. Oh, don’t forget the nine tenths of a cent. I mean, really?!!? I had driven past gas stations with higher and higher prices. I passed up $5.49, only to see it climb to $6.09, so $5.99 it was. Just before pulling in here tonight, I found a no-name station selling it for $5.09, and filled it up.

I got a late start today, after getting carded at Trader Joe’s for buying a single of Pumpkin Happy Coffee: nitro hard coffee, with a pumpkin face on the can. Carrying only my keys and my charge card, I said, “I’m 68. Almost 69.” He said I looked much younger. That wiped away the grumpies I took on from earlier hassles.

Then, back at the ranch, two men were wrapping up their work for Kim. One wanted to see my skoolie because his girlfriend wants to build one. When the other, Tony, mentioned he was going for a CDL, I asked him to help check my fluids. It turns out, I’d overfilled the oil when I added a gallon and a half. He assured me it would burn off. Another skoolie connection, and another angel encounter.

The views were beautiful, with the most vivid colors in the upper part of the state, then more yellows, and now a fair amount of green. Karma’s new front tires were grabbing the road up and down mountains and hills, and around some 35-degree turns on those hills. I snapped a shot from one scenic overlook. Definitely not the best memory implanted in my brain today as I sang praises to tumbling brooks, trees with insanely vibrant red leaves, threes holding a sphere of yellow above the lower branches, a field of pumpkins, a somewhat scary bridge that would throw me into a panic my first year out.

And because no one publishes photos of their bus packed for travel, I decided to show you what happens when you are unsupervised during a full moon … you can fall back into witchcrafting with all the same things you gave away when moving out of the condo. A good reason to avoid 35-degree turns.

Today is my mother’s birthday. She would have been 92. I am going to go do a little party for her, and post again soon.

Enjoy these autumn days, for Samhain is looming ever closer.