Thanks.

We give thanks on this special day. Not only for turkey and family and friends.

And good fortune and blessings and another beautiful day.

But ALSO because...


The last window is in.


Just that pesky dormer left, and the house exterior will be complete.


The exterior doors are all in, primed and waiting for their paint. This is the front door. The transom will have divides in it...we install them at our leisure. I'm thinking this door needs some sort of punchy color. Red? Green? Purple?

And lastly, I give thanks that my children savely returned from their excursion out on the scaffolding.


And that I didn't drop dead of a heart attack while they were out there.

Thank you, God, for all these things.

Not a moment's peace

My folks' dog, Mick, is a good dog, the third in a series of labrador retrievers over the last 40 years (yes, they've each lived to ripe old ages). But Mick, unlike the previous two, has had just my folks in the house most of the time. And even though he is a lab, arguably one of the friendliest breeds around, I think he needs a break sometimes from the chaotic presence of two five-year-olds.

Of course it could just be he's enjoying the view.


Or maybe he's posing, waiting to be admired.

But the kids see him and invade his moment. Even from this distance, I can hear his sigh of resignation.

But what's this? A treat? For me?

OK, I guess you can stay!

The splendors of nature

Autumn is one of my four favorite seasons.

It is here in full force in Tollhouse. Here is the Chinese pistachio in my folks' front yard. I think I've gotta get me one of those! Wouldn't it look striking with the white farmhouse?

The girls are trying to get to those gorgeous colors.


Every time I'm out and about in this beautiful area, I appreciate the views. We are in the Sierra foothills. The foothills are not quite mountains by Sierra or Rocky Mountain standards, but right on the ragged edge. There are lots of slabby granite faces like this one.




This is Tollhouse Rock, and yes, it has some climbing routes on it. And yes, we have been climbing on it, but not recently. Maybe ten years ago, we climbed the "Tollhouse Traverse", a diagonal crack running from the bottom center of the face to the upper left section of the top. It was well set up for a three-person team, one skilled leader (Mark), one spasmoid in the middle (me), and one skilled follower (our buddy Brent Borchers). It really was great fun, and I actually hope to do it again.

Just to the left of Tollhouse Rock is a formation locally known as "Squaw's Tit". No one knows why.


OK, yeah, I guess I can see it. But look at it...so perky and round. That doesn't occur in nature. It's gotta be fake!

The Ugly Wall

Now, you may be wondering about the ugly wall, and whether or not it is living up to its name.

Up to the end, it proceeds like the other two before it.


But then...it gets ugly.

Here is Mark getting ready to work near the top of the wall.



He climbs up our tallest ladder, but then:



He swings out into space on his climbing gear,



and pulls himself up the rope with his ascenders (climbing gear with which he is fortunately quite familiar).



Yep--it's ugly, but it's also almost done, and THAT is beautiful!

Crazy Hair Day

Last Friday was Crazy Hair Day at Sierra Elementary. We did something really crazy.

Can you guess what it was?






Yep, we switched the ponytails! (for anyone who doesn't know, "the code" is Mae has one syllable and always one pony). I have to admit, it was a little disconcerting even for us as parents!

Fortunately (?) Mae also had the last traces of a black eye she got last week getting clocked by a door. And she has two teeth missing, and Abigail only has one.

So I'm quite sure we still know who is who.

Really.

It's not easy being green

The Halloween paraphernalia lingered around in the house, until Abigail noticed some face paints (procured during her short-lived desire to be a frog, before the pink fairy concept took its insidious pink hold). She asked if she couldn't, pretty please, be made up like the witch shown on the packaging. How could I refuse?



She practiced her best cackles, and had fun riding her duster.



But did I throw the make-up away after that? No-ooooooooooooh.

So a couple of days later, the girls wanted to try their hand APPLYing the make-up. I was more than happy to oblige.



They took great care, enhancing my natural zombie-witch qualities.



The shining result!



As Kermit The Frog sang:

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
And I think it's what I want to be

Thank you, Kermit...I couldn't have said it better myself!

The cemetery

Last summer, when the girls were 4, we were on a big RV tour of the Northeast. As we traveled on the back roads, we passed many small cemeteries. The girls commented:

"Look...a park!"

"No" I explained, "That's a cemetery."

Now I'm struggling to find the words that will make this as benign and un-scary as possible.

"After a person dies, their spirit leaves the body and goes up to heaven, where they see everyone they love and are very happy. They don't need their body any more, so the body is buried in the ground."

The girls were very accepting of this. So the next time we passed a cemetery, one of the girls says

"That's a cemetery, where they bury the body after a person dies."

At this point, I'm feeling very proud of how smoothly this little lesson went, until the next comment:

"Yeah, they bury the bodies, but NOT THE HEADS!"

So much for un-scary!