The skies are clear. It’s a brisk 36 degrees out. And here in Nebraska, we’ve just fallen back. We’ve forgotten the reasons why and whether or not we are now saving daylight is a question we let google answer. We can’t be bothered with these details. Our phones take care of the time for us now.

Apparently I can’t be bothered with sleep either. Awake just after 4am and unable to make my mind rest more. Jim says I’m not trying. He says I just need to lay there and meditate and focus on breathing until I fall back to sleep. But I have to pee and then I’m thinking about something monumentally important and for some damn reason, I use the excuse that I can get up and be productive and feel great and have a nap later.

But then I don’t get a nap. My day does not allow it. My mind does not allow it. It insists on task a after task. Even when I feel sick like I was yesterday I’m on the couch with my laptop getting “work” done.

In the afternoon I saw the temperature gauge in our kitchen climb to above 60 degrees and the sun was shining. There’s no way I was going to waste an opportunity to actually enjoy fall. It’s such a short season in these parts and those perfect days are sometimes few and far between. As daylight wanes, they will become fewer and farther between until there’s none and it’s just dark and cold for the duration of winter. Seasonal depressive disorder is real folks. You gotta get that sunshine and fresh air when you can.

So instead of napping I jumped in my Jeep and headed for the nearest public high school. I haven’t cared for walking the neighborhood since I was a kid and much prefer the steady rhythm and ease of walking a track. It’s probably why I enjoy the treadmill so much.

There were a few groups of young people enjoying the space as well. Some guys tossing and catching baseballs. Some girls kicking soccer balls around. And another group just kind of loitering about, without any balls. 😜

I walked and listened to my music and every once and a while did a hustle up and down the stairs of the grand stands. It actually made me feel better to get outside and get my heart going. After all, I had to gear up for Halloween festivities. I might control the weather but I have no control over the calendar.

We hosted 11 teenagers and our oldest sat watch on the front porch to pass candy to any tricksters wandering our way. He and his dad (mostly Jim) built an impressive candy chute to slide treats to costumed kids from a Covid safe distance.

They also really did a number on the front yard turning it into a graveyard complete with zombies and skeletons emerging from the ground.

I’m good with all of it as long as I don’t have to pick it all up. I was promised I wouldn’t. My one job of the evening was securing food for the group of kids staying at the house. It was Little Caesar’s Pizza-pizza for them and R-Taco for Jim and I.

I might have supplemented my tacos with a margarita (yeah, Friday’s hangover long gone) and then switched to some home-made apple cider moonshine that one of the nurses at Jim’s work gave to him for us to try. Homemade?

When I asked what was in it, he told me they said it was apple cider and Everclear. Yeah… sounds like a bad idea, but it was actually pretty good. Enough of a bite that I had to sip it slow and just sweet enough to keep me sipping.

I definitely did not meet my new “healthy eating” goal yesterday but whatever. I did hit my exercise goal with 18k steps so that’s something right??!!

Today is a new day, a new month, and another adventure waiting to happen. Fingers, legs, toes, and eyes crossed for a good outcome this week.

Aaaannnnd.. I better stop there before I am tempted to get on that political soap-box. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Cheers to the rest of the weekend,
~Miss SugarCookie