A man struggles to survive on a disabled sailing vessel in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Seventy-eight-year-old Robert Redford was outstanding in this movie made last year with no dialogue and only him in the movie except for at the very end of the movie. It makes you wonder whether, in similar circumstances, you'd lose it and give up or if you'd rise to each challenge that could determine whether you make it or not.

If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend it. I saw it on Netflix.

Back to the more mundane aspects of my life...

Yesterday I picked up a new comforter set and some towels at JC Penney. I browsed Pier 1 but didn't buy anything. I bought a fall coat at Kohl's with my 30% off coupon (I will still have to take up the sleeves on it, which are wayyyy too long) and earned another $10 in Kohl's rewards. I picked up some Chinese and decided to eat it in my car so I could then go to TJ Maxx in the same shopping center and wound up spilling the tinfoil tray of food that was balanced on my car seat. I had to throw half the food away and hose down the floor mat. Also filled up the gas tank and vacuumed both floors of the house.

Friday night I mowed the front lawn. It's getting dark out earlier, so I knew I had to mow asap upon getting home from work or I'd be mowing in the dark. I made it.

Today I need to mow the back, as much to mulch fallen leaves as to cut the grass. I also MUST vacuum the car, which is getting a little too grungy and soon it'll be too cold to vacuum. I also have to pick up my CSA shares at the farm and make a pot of soup for this week's work lunches.

I had an idea this week about my family room carpeting. It's the only room in the house with wall to wall carpeting, and that carpeting is now grungy with its cat vomit and hairball stains and with the cats scratching and pulling bits of it up on a daily basis. I'd love to replace it but it doesn't make sense while my cats (ages 5 and 13) are still here. I remembered that when I bought the place, I saw there was hardwood flooring under the old carpeting I replaced with my own, but someone had painted it a dark brownish color. I'm toying with the idea of ripping up my wall to wall carpeting and not replacing it with more wall to wall as I was intending to do (at some point). The "distressed" look is in, and I think this hardwood floor might look distressed. I was thinking how good a white ultra-luxurious shag area rug would look against the dark floor color. Of course, the cats would scratch that too, so I won't do it now, although I could pull up the wall to wall carpeting and throw down a kilim 5 x 7 rug I already have which doesn't really shred when the cats scratch it.

The other option would be to strip the old paint and refinish the floors. I believe the addition was added to the house around 1990??? but I did just want to confirm that lead paint, which was banned in 1978, wouldn't be an issue. I tried to confirm the year of the addition by calling first the assessor's office, and then the building dept., but neither place could tell me. I know I saw the date written somewhere so maybe I can find something if I go thru my various files for the house.

Each week this month I have some sort of change in my work schedule which will frankly give me a break from the unending routine of working at the office. Tuesday I'm working from home so i can see a podiatrist. The week after that we have Monday off for Columbus Day (and I'm getting my new dishwasher installed that day), plus I have a dentist appointment mid-week which means I'll leave work a little early. The last 2 weeks of October I have each Friday off as PTO (Paid Time Off). Hooray.

I have an oval-shaped mirror that used to be my grandmother's with Victorian-looking, brass-colored handles with garlands or leaves around them. I believe it's meant to sit flat on a dresser and you put your little perfume bottles or what-not on it, although it could also be hung.

Probably not worth much, but it's rather pretty and has sentimental value. I don't really use it. It's been sitting in my closet. I've been wanting to buy an antique silver or silver metallic-type spray paint so I can change the brassy color to silver. There are so many choices out there so I haven't made the purchase yet, but I hope to before it gets too cold to do this outside.

Maybe I should just use the leftover spraypaint i have called Looking Glass Spraypaint. If you use it as directed, it will look like a mirrored reflection, but if you alternately spray the paint with spritzes of water, which you gently blot, you can achieve a surface that looks like mercury glass. However, that technique is only intended for objects made of glass; I'm not sure how it would work on the metal handles of this mirror. I'd had to ruin it, although i guess if i had to I could just spray paint over it again with something else.