We get our life back

Every year since the Capt and I have been together (22 in all now), we have dedicated a portion of each year to a publishing deadline, which usually falls in the fall. (It used to be worse: I remember when it fell right around Christmas!) Without fail, as deadline approaches, there's always an annual series of mishaps to slow us down, jack up the stress level and make us grumpy. This year, we had a flood and then almost-hourly Internet failures and a Vonage phone that would capriciously cut off crucial conversations with clients. This after upgrading our service with TelMex, with additional monthly charges, which was supposed to increase our speed. Carlos Slim gets richer, we buy more frustration.

But last night we limped to the finish line, uploading the entire publication (an annual map guide to antique stores in the western US) via email to the printer in Oregon. To celebrate, the Capt baked a double recipe of Deadline Ginger Cookies, while I bestowed a pedicure on my neglected feet, which still showed traces of flood mud after three weeks.

Now it's a done deal: any errors or typos or "stupids" as I call them are set in print for the year. So be it. When we upload the whole book onto our website next month, we can correct the booboos, which is some consolation.

October 15 is the official beginning of autumn here, and the weather never lets us down. Presto-change-o!  Temperatures magically drop to just about perfect. We can sleep comfortably with just a couple of fans. Go outdoors and enjoy the sun on our backs.
Today at the library, where I volunteer every Friday, several snowbirds I hadn't seen in months stopped by and the two hours flew by while we all caught up with each others' lives. Then I came home and walked the dogs, and noticed that the world just seems somehow brighter and more colorful. 

Speaking of colorful... I gently scooped up a designer grasshopper and brought him back home where I could photograph him, an exercise in using my closeup lens. He's almost three inches long, decorated in patterns of teal, green, yellow and coral. The Capt grabbed his camera too and we snapped away like a couple of papparazzi. He accommodated us by holding still for a bit, and then went his way, no worse for his 15 minutes of fame.