It was a very productive day here. It was also the likely last day it hit 61 degrees for quite some time, so I decided in advance to get as much outdoor work done as possible. I wound up:

* Mowing front and back, not completely, but the parts where the grass has gotten long since my mower's last mowing, which I guess was in October. In the process, I chopped up a bunch of leaves with my mulching blade.

* I also blew clean all the leaves on the driveway; they tend to get trapped at the top, which is surrounded by stone walls on 3 sides. No doubt I'll accumulate more later.

* I cleaned up leaves off the back patio, just so it's tidy moving into winter.

* I spoke to my neighbor about his missing indoor cat. I heard meows yesterday afternoon while doing yard work and told  him where I thought it might be. They didn't find it, but walked around my yard just in case. I sure hope they find Ninja. It will turn much colder tomorrow, by about 20 degrees.

* This past summer I hired a very nice young woman to exclude mice from my basement; she checked the whole exterior foundation and then plugged up 13 pretty small holes. Amazingly, I have not had any mice this year, and I checked my records from last year, which indicate I caught my first one last Oct. 16, so I think I would have caught some by now, especially since I've had the heat on.

I vowed to send her flowers if she succeeded in excluding mice, so today, instead of flowers, I decided to send a gift basket of wine, cheese and crackers. Hope she likes it. Cost a small fortune, but I do believe her work is worth its weight in gold. When I think that Fox Pest Control wanted something like $1200 for a season's worth of bait and poison, um, no thanks. Much prefer the permanent solution that doesn't rely on poison. She knows something is coming as I knew it's a small business and there's no one sitting around answering phones, so I needed her personal address to send the basket to.

Today I also had an electrician over to replace the old and very basic ceiling fan that's been in my kitchen. It's been working fine for many years, but I decided to replace it because, since the fan has no lights (I thought they were ugly at the time I shopped ceiling fans 20 years ago), my kitchen has been on the dark side, most especially in winter.

I was amazed at the new styles, and like the much smaller footprint. I'm very happy with it; i picked out this one as it matches my bamboo shades.

I also squeezed in my 3rd workout at the gym for the week. All told, today's activities have me closing in on 13,000 steps, per FitBit.

I decided to get my RSV vaccine (first time). I don't recall hearing much about RSV in the past, or the vaccine, but decided to move forward with it, so I have it scheduled for tomorrow at Walgreens, where I got my 100% painless COVID shot. Next year, I'll be "eligible" to receive my first ever pneumonia shot.

While I'm out that way, I'm also going to fill up the gas tank at BJs for my Thanksgiving travel. I'll be picking up Dad and traveling about an hour to meet my cousin at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse that's equidistant from where she lives also. Neither of us likes driving at night, so it's going to be a very early Thanksgiving dinner, more like lunch, but hey. I definitely miss home cooking and the leftovers, but our group is too small for that and we both have animals at home that preclude an overnight visit.

On the way home from filling up the gas tank tomorrow, I'll stop at the VNA consignment shop and see what they've got, just for hoo-hahs. I also need to wrap my cousin's Christmas presents this weekend so I can give to her when I see her at Thanksgiving and save a fortune on shipping.

We're about halfway through my father's 15 physical therapy sessions. (I'm driving him twice a week.) I'm not sure he's noticed any improvements yet, except he commented the other day that he's sleeping much better, and I'm quite sure it's because he's spending less time watching TV in bed. I try to encourage him as much as possible to keep up the exercises on his own in between sessions with the physical therapist.

Next week, due to the holiday, I chose to schedule just one PT session, and on the same day, it's back to to endodonist to do part 1 of 2 for his second crown/root canal after he had 2 cracked teeth in quick succession. I'll be really glad when all these medical appointments are done, although the PT is okay twice a week. I'm getting into the groove of it now.