I was excited to see a mama raccoon and her three youngsters passing through the yard. I had been weeding here and there, but had been forced indoors by a sudden rain shower. There was a doe snorting impatiently at me while I was out there; I knew she wanted me to leave so she could do the daily feed on the fallen green apples from the tree. I see her there every single day, since the apples began falling. Even in summer, she is still quite lean, and you can see her ribs.

Relaxing in the sun room, Luther spotted them first. He growled. They nonchalantly climbed the Stairway to Heaven (aka, the stairs to my backyard) and disappeared into a row of forsythia.

You've seen the Stairway to Heaven before, but somehow it seems fitting to show it again in winter.



Anyway, they were awfully cute. I see practically everything here but for some reason, no raccoons in 15 years. Until this year. I knew they'd already ransacked a bag of cracked corn I had in the garage. My own carelessness, since I have a bad habit of leaving the garage door open.

In other news, I have an extremely sore backside. It feels exactly as if I bumped into something hard and caused a bruise, except that I didn't bump into anything that I remember. It's a bone near the top of my butt, to the right of my spine. It's very, very sore. Strange.

I met a friend at an MS luncheon at the Courtyard Marriott today. I like to go to these; it's a chance to talk with other MSers, meet new doctors and get a nice (free) meal. This one was a refresher course on proper injection techniques. Not the most uplifting topic, but still important as you can do a number of your skin if you keep injecting into the same spot day after day.

The really big news is that the guy I hired to do my vinyl siding is ready to start this week, probably Thursday or Friday. I'm not looking forward to the 1-2 weeks of inconvenience, mess and lack of privacy, nor the bill, but I definitely want to have it done.

I had originally hoped it would be done in June, but the bad weather and a tornado that damaged the builder's house set him back by a month or so.

I started hauling my many potted annuals and herbs into the garage, where they will safely remain for the duration of the project. Since they'll be tearing asbestos shingles off the house, I don't want any dust floating onto my basil.

I also pulled up a few solar walkway lights and some low border fencing so they don't trip over it. I'm most worried about my in-ground perennials being trampled and crushed. They all look so healthy, but it would be impossible to, say, put boxes over each to protect them becus there are just too many all around the house.

Tomorrow night I'm going to an author's presentation on getting your book published. I'm going out of personal interest, but also I'll be with the author whose book I'm editing. There will be a bunch of writers there. My author told me to bring my business cards; maybe I can drum up some business there.