Produce Stories

Happily my return to work yesterday wasn't awful.  When I'm away with my laptop and internet access, I tend to check work e-mails once a day (but only once a day) because this practice lessens my dread at returning to work.  And on Monday, while I was driving back to South Florida, my school lost internet access across all campuses, so I didn't miss much on Monday.

I brought apples for all and a jar of special apple butter for the colleagues who do so much to keep the academic side running smoothly, the ones who make it possible for me to feel that it's OK to be away.  I was happy to see a faculty member munching an apple right after I put the basket in the break room.

When my grad school friend and I were doing our great driving tour of Columbia, SC, I had decided not to buy pumpkins, but then I changed my mind.  I wondered why I was resistant to buying pumpkins when they bring me such joy, and we've five weeks until Thanksgiving--five weeks is a lot of joy for less than $20.  In retrospect, I'm happy that I did.

Here's a pumpkin story from South Florida, a pumpkin story that makes me SO glad we went back to buy pumpkins. My spouse was sitting on the porch when an older woman and a young boy (3 years old or so) came walking by. The little boy was very excited about seeing pumpkins. The woman explained that they had been on a pumpkin walk, looking for pumpkins, and they weren't finding many. She was so happy to see our house with its cheery pumpkins.  And that made me happy too.

As I drove to work yesterday, I was surprised by how many houses have now been decorated for Halloween, houses that weren't decorated a week ago.  We've got Halloween decorations and fall decorations and political yard signs, including some houses that have turned their whole yard into a work of political art.  The backdrop (the foliage, the architecture) is very tropical, so there can be some jarring disconnects.

Last night, we thought about driving through our neighborhood to see the Halloween lights, if there are any--but then the skies opened up, and it hasn't stopped raining since.  It's a rare night where I hear rain pattering against the window each time I wake up.

So, we stayed in and filled out our mail-in ballots, a less onerous task than I was expecting.  Some years we have so many constitutional amendments that the ballot is 12 pages or more.  We will take the ballots to the early voting polling place, our local library, and we'll drop them in the secure drop box.

Here's hoping that the seeds we've planted produce the outcomes we want.