The Autumn of Olga

Well, the lawn-mowing didn't happen this weekend -- perhaps the one thing I meant to do that didn't get done. It rained steadily all yesterday morning so there was never an opportunity, and even when the sun finally emerged in the afternoon the grass was too wet. Maybe this afternoon after work.

I did get some more trimming and neatening done in the garden, and in the process I found that one of our roses -- the salmon-colored one, which is one of my favorites -- has a new bud. It's pretty late for the roses to be blooming but we'll see what happens. Curiously, this bud is much darker than usual for that rose. Funny how temperature, or light, or some other seasonal factor affects flowers. We have other blossoms that also change color as the months pass.

I heard that my hometown, Tampa, experienced a mass shooting on Saturday during an unofficial Halloween street party in the city's old Latin quarter, the epicenter of its nightlife. It sounds like an argument flared into gunfire and managed to catch a lot of innocent bystanders in the crossfire. Once again, I've gotta question the easy availability of guns in the USA and specifically Florida. Thanks, DeSantis!

Years ago I wrote about my memories of attending Guavaween, which used to be Tampa's official Halloween celebration. (The city's unofficial nickname, popularized by a well-read newspaper columnist at the time, was "The Big Guava.") I went a few times in the late '80s and early '90s and it was a fun, harmless street party. But policing the event became more and more difficult over the years and I believe Guavaween is essentially dead now, having morphed into disorganized Halloween revelry like what was happening on Saturday.

Olga and I took a walk in the afternoon, after the rain cleared. She looks thin in the photo above but she's really not. She's lost some subcutaneous fat, so she looks a bit more bony than usual, but she weighs as much as she ever did. Still, you can tell she's an old girl. We could call this photo "The Autumn of Olga."

We hadn't been to the cemetery in a while and she seemed to enjoy the walk. She stalked and glared at squirrels (no more chasing them) and trotted after her ball when I threw it short distances. We found this curious item in the grass -- obviously someone's dog toy, which looks like an aide memoire for English teachers. The sides say things like, "What background do you bring to the story?" and "What does the title tell you about the story?" Apparently a very literary dog had been there before us!

When we got home I gave Olga a bath, which she hadn't had in a while. She's usually a self-cleaning dog, not prone to being dirty or smelly, but she managed to kick up lots of mud on her undercarriage.

Thanks for all your comments and tips on Dave's conjunctivitis, or whatever it is. He did take a Covid test and it's definitely not that. It might be associated with his Crohn's but the doctor didn't flag that as a concern, so who knows. So far I am still unaffected.

Last night we watched another installment of "The Fall of the House of Usher." I wouldn't say this is a mind-blowing series but it's good for Halloween -- if you don't mind a bit of gore -- and it's fun to watch for the Edgar Allan Poe references.