I had a meeting at the Cabot Historical Society building this afternoon.  It was much colder in there than it was outside, and even though I'd worn a sweater and a normally pretty warm jacket, after sitting for a little over an hour there, I was chilled to the bone.  The ride home with warm air blasting at me in my heated seat and hanging onto my heated steering wheel, wasn't long enough to get me warmed up.  We had turned down the thermostat in the house during these nice days which had been fine, even for me at my computer which is often where I notice my feet are cold, so I asked Fred to turn up the heat.  Finally, after hot soup and hot tea for supper, two layers of sweaters, a fleece blanket and Woody in my lap for a couple hours, I finally got warmed up.  Woody, a natural lap warmer, was beside himself with all the soft fleece and sweaters to knit on.  Now he's curled up on the desk next to me as I'm working here - he's such a good buddy.

Earlier this afternoon, I'd started washing the outside windows - well, the one in my office, at least.  I've been meaning to get that done for a while now, but only remember it when the sun is shining in and I can see all the fly specks and smudges.  I got that one finished and left for my meeting.  When I returned, Fred had finished all the others - every single one!  He always does the big ones in the living room, but I generally do at least some of the others.  I don't mind washing windows on nice fall days.  I am always inspired to get it done before it gets too cold, otherwise I'm left looking through smudgy windows all winter, and that drives me a little crazy.  It used to be we always did the windows inside and out before putting on storm windows, but we haven't dealt with storm windows since we were living at camp.  That was a chore, but it always seemed cozy once they were all clean and in place.  It's always quieter with the storm windows on, too.  I notice a big difference, too, when we get the glass panels in the outside doors - I don't hear traffic.  It's always nice in the spring when I put the screens in place and can have the doors and windows open, too.  Just some of the benefits in living where there are changes in the seasons.

I still have work to do in my gardens, but that may have to wait until after "Sandy" is out of here.  No point in mulching with leaves or covering anything if it's going to get blown away.  This may be one of those years when it simply doesn't get done.  It won't be the end of the world, I'm sure.  The tulips and daffies will arrive as usual, and other perennials will poke through the earth with or without mulch.  I'm not going to wrap up my azalea this year.  Last spring it looked awful when I unwrapped it - all brown leaves that fell off, so now I'm thinking if I just put a frame over so it won't be broken down by snow, it may do better without any other covering.  I've tried burlap, blankets and plastic, and nothing seems to be a perfect solution.  I was going to remove it this spring, but last minute decided to cut it back and leave it in place.  Over the summer it came back strong as ever.  

Keep safe if you are in the path of the storm.  We're still not sure how much we'll be affected here at Joe's Pond, but the latest forecasts are saying there will be high winds and power outages.  So we won't be going anywhere we don't absolutely need to.