I am writing this on Saturday, 9/27. There are no pics.

We met with the financial planner Wednesday. My goodness it was an experience. We reviewed our investments, etc. Discussed our goals. The financial planner will put everything into his computer program and we will review his suggestions in a few weeks. I’m not sure why, but we got quite — I’m not sure what. It wasn’t excited. It wasn’t worked up. It was something between those two, I guess. We ended up having an unplanned dinner out. Then we got TV snacks and a bottle of red wine. We still had our planned dinner out Thursday. And we were close to going out again Friday. I think we’re getting back close to normal.

We had some nice but cool weather, followed by a day of cold rain. Today it was extremely nice — 80 and sunny. We went to another section of the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge and had a wonderful hike in a wooded area. This time, we had to sign a form in triplicate. One copy stayed in the office, one went on the dash board of our car, and one stayed with us. We were required to return our two copies when we got back. They were talking about unexploded ordinance from when the area was part of a military base. We decided to take their advice and stay on the trail. ;-) After our walk, we had lunch at a local restaurant. We’ll do our normal Church and Sunday breakfast out tomorrow.

We’ve been attending different churches. We haven’t really fitted into St. Louis. We visited a parish that uses one of the shared religious centers here in Columbia for a few weeks. Now we’re trying another parish near by.

While we were having that cool but nice weather, then the rainy cool and not so nice weather, I was being reminded of how cold I felt most of last winter. We heat our house to 68 in the winter. It’s from a combination of wanting to be green and being cheap. Every time I settled down to read, or play with the computer, or do some other sedentary activity, I got quite cold. I understand the importance of being active, but I don’t plan to be active all the time. I decided what I need is a heavy, warm sweater. The only thing I can find in the stores is fashionable light-weight sweaters, so I ordered one. It came in today. It looks like it’s going to be a big help. What I know for sure is that it is *very* warm if worn when it’s 80 degrees.

I continue to be surprised by the things I should know but don’t. I was reading Ken Follett’s middle book in his “Century” series. This book starts just as Hitler is taking power in Germany. I read about the Battle of Cable Street. This took place in London on October 4, 1936. Fascist “Black Shirts” wanted to have a march through London’s East Side. The East Side is where the poorer people lived, including most of the Jews. Many people in the Black Shirts were from the upper-class. People from the East Side plus several leftist organizations opposed the march by barricading Cable Street. The London Police tried to clear the street — including horse mounted police beating British citizens with sticks. I had never heard of this before. After I read Follett’s fictionalized account, I started searching the internet. It’s easy to find news videos of the riot and endless summaries and analysis. What surprised me most was the disagreement of precisely who participated, and what the after affects were. I would read an analysis that said “clearly, this was the result”. Then I would read “clearly, that was the result.” I was almost left wondering if people were talking about the same event.

I hope next week will be a little less exciting. And I hope this finds everybody doing well. And it would be nice if my server actually sends the Emails this week. I guess we’ll see soon enough.