Colors

Autumn colors do appear in southern California and I captured some here without even realizing because I was actually trying to catch those little buds. Nothing stellar or worth shouting about in this photo, and that was true of this day.

Maybe I was attracted to the red buds because I've been listening to instrumental Christmas music all afternoon as I've read and graded student essays. Holiday music always puts me in a good mood and I needed something to lift my spirits because these essays are not and in order to write anything encouraging to students who submitted less than qulaity work, I need to be in a good mood. I refrained from writing "Ho, ho, ho" on any of them.

An interesting moment happened while listening to this music . . . one song begins with the sound of horses feet as they come past pulling a sleigh. Years ago when we would play the song "Bob Dog" would just go crazy barking; he had seen and heard horses pulling carriages in the streets of Riverside near the historic Mission Inn. We play the same Christmas music year after year. So several years later when we noticed that Bobby was no longer upset by the noise of the horses we just thought he had gotten used to it. Then we realized that he was going deaf. The last few years of his life, "Bob dog" hardly heard anything. Today when "the horses arrived," Max jumped up and starting barking and ran to the sliding glass door to look out. I sat here stunned with tears in my eyes remembering "Bob dog." It was a bitter sweet moment in my afternoon.

We absolutely love the three pooches that have joined our family since last Christmas --Chloe, Mitzi, and Max -- and the only reason we hesitated in getting any pets after Bob dog was gone, was the thought of experiencing their aging and eventually being gone from us. We sure would have missed a lot of joy, though, if we had not added them to this family. Life is pretty strange, isn't it?

Christmas music, grading student papers, dogs barking at the sound of horses -- that's been my last Saturday of October.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka