There are no pictures this week. I am writing this on Sunday, 10/6.

It’s October and we are well into Fall. The days are shorter. The leaves are turning. The high temperature is 90 degrees. We might get the remnants of a tropical storm tomorrow. One thing stays true. If you don’t like the weather in Baltimore, wait a bit. It will be different.

I tried staying home Friday. We wanted to have the dryer vent cleaned. (You clean yours every 2 or 3 years, don’t you?) I decided that after the tech left would be a great time to clean the deck. I like our deck because it has a great view, and because it doesn’t get a lot of sun. Unfortunately, that latter point means that green stuff grows on it and I have to clean it twice a year. I don’t know how anything grows on the chemically-infused lumber they use for decks. It must be tenacious stuff, because it even grows on the plastic-covered railings. After the deck was cleaned, I had the power washer out, so I went ahead and cleaned the garage. After all that, I decided it’s too way much work to stay home. I need to spend more time riding my bike.

Danita was also home Friday. She saw the doctor Wednesday and was sick by Friday. Is that how that’s supposed to work, or did I get something wrong? I also started feeling something coming on, but I was no where as sick as she. We started taking Cold-Eze and now we’re both better.

There were no parties this week, but we’re getting pretty good at finding really great excuses to eat out. For example, “The car’s in the driveway. We’ll have to start it to park it in the garage, so we might as well eat out.” And, of course, if you have a bit of a sore throat, ice cream is a great throat-soother.

As everybody knows, the government is shut down. Danita’s research team is largely government funded. So far, there is little effect to her team. The scientists that work at Godard don’t have access to base. Mostly that means they take their lap tops home and do whatever it is scientists do all day. Fortunately, her team is under a grant that was already funded through Nov, 2014. Some of the scientists will eventually run out of work  because they can’t consult with the civil servants, or because they need data from government servers, or whatever. But for now, everybody is working.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.