Potato Horror Show

We have a long, narrow window in one of our bathrooms, and maybe a year ago I put a pot with some cuttings from our "wandering dude" plant on the windowsill. As you can see, it has prospered to the point that it has outgrown that little niche. I think it's taking over the world. I'm not sure where it's headed next but it is creeping out into the room.

At left, in the frame, you can see that odd face mask I found on the beach in Vietnam.

Yesterday I started my annual Charles Dickens autumn reading project. This year I've chosen "The Old Curiosity Shop," which I know absolutely nothing about. I just like the name because I love a thrift store, and if Charles Dickens is writing about his era's equivalent of a Goodwill, well, that sounds pretty interesting. Then I made the mistake of reading the introduction by the Earl of Wicklow, from 1950, in which he revealed several significant spoilers. For example, he assumes (SPOILER ALERT!) that we know going into the book that Little Nell dies, but personally, I would have preferred to find that out at Dickens' pace.

I spent some time in the garden cutting down some spent Michaelmas daisies and tucking another dahlia into the shed for its winter nap. I also put our garden cam back out again -- I took it down last week, thinking I'd take a break from it, but I've been missing the antics of my wild critters.

Oh, and I got confirmation that my voluntary redundancy contract has been signed by the school, so that is that -- I am officially retiring as of April 15. Six more months to go! It's hard to believe.

I discovered a bag of potatoes in our pantry that, let's just say, had been there a while. When I opened it, this horrific scene awaited. Halloween-worthy, right? I mean, those are just fleshy roots, but still -- pretty gross. I am the king of finding ways to eat food that's a bit past its prime, but these were too far gone even for me. Into the compost bin they went.

In the evening, Dave and I watched "A House of Dynamite," Netflix's new movie by Kathryn Bigelow about a possible nuclear attack on the United States. It's a riveting moment-by-moment account of how such an event might unfold among the primary players, but the ending was maddening. I had a few quibbles with it -- for example, some fighter pilots were shown scrambling and then flying in their jet, presumably to surveil (or shoot down?) the incoming missile, but nothing ever came of them. And it was never explained -- at least, not to my satisfaction -- why the most obvious way to address the predicament (waiting) wasn't viable. I can't say any more without giving the plot away.

It's been a good movie weekend. On Friday we watched an old Shepperton Studios film from 1960 called "City of the Dead" starring Christopher Lee. Q-Anon Anonymous -- a podcast I follow that critiques conspiracy thinking -- did an episode on this film, which was ultimately about witchcraft, and though it is strictly a B-movie in the Saturday afternoon "Creature Feature" vein, I enjoyed it.

Do you want some happy reading? Check out:

-- The story of Ray Ray the cat, who stowed away among the luggage on top of the family car when his owners went for a road trip from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire. They found him unscathed after about 100 miles of driving.

-- The story of Kiki the disabled sheep, who cannot walk but has a custom-made cart she can steer and operate with her head to move around. She has become something of a star both at the animal refuge where she lives and on social media. (Admittedly, this one is bittersweet, and I think there's quite a bit of anthropomorphizing going on in interpreting Kiki's behavior, but still -- she's lucky to be alive and mobile. It seems insane that we eat perfectly healthy lambs and then go to such lengths to help a sick one, but no one ever said humans are free from moral contradictions.)

Both of those should be gift-article links accessible to non-subscribers, so I hope they work for you.