Monday ...

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   It's my first fall here, and I've come down with a sinus issue from new pollens.  I should have been eating local honey since last year when I got here to build up immunities.  I was sick all weekend and took a half-day off work today, promptly falling asleep on the sofa for three hours.

   Tonight I've been watching a frightening new show on Hulu called "The Hot Zone."  Frightening because it is based on a true story about ebola in the Washington DC area.  Reminds me almost of when I was reading Stephen King's "The Stand" when I was working in a bank lending center during flu season.  I worked in a bay with 11 other people, six desks on each side plus the supervisor.  The flu traveled up and down the bays.  In the time of Covid-19, virus movies are the latest horror movies.

   I'm trying to eat new things occasionally, and as I mentioned last Thursday, I was gifted with some very green tomatoes.  Unfortunately, I waited too long to fry them and learned the hard way that fried green tomatoes have to be fried when they are very green and firm.  Otherwise, you get fried kinda red & green mush.

 

 Last weekend I picked up a pomegranate because they were really nice looking and it had been over 40 years since I had one.  Greek mythology used to be my thing back in the day, and I remember the story of Persephone and Hades and wouldn't eat any of the seeds.  I was in Florida at the time, and the last thing I wanted was to jinx us with a long winter.  This time, after a little research, I found out that eating the seeds is safe to do, and has some benefits.  Unfortunately, they are so woody-tasting that I couldn't eat them.  Grape-Nuts taste better and are easier to swallow.  Sawdust probably would be also. There will not be a long winter in West Virginia because of me.  But I will be adding pomegranate juice to my shopping list all the time now.  Just drinking over a cup every day has some amazing health benefits.

 

   I also got a free sample 4-pack of Heinekin's new "near-beer" ~ an alcohol-free version ~ to try this past week.  It was not bad, and I will probably buy it occasionally when I'm in the mood for a beer.   My drinking days are long past now, it's a good thing.

   Early this morning as I was getting ready to start my workday, I got a visit from a male cardinal that I've named Pip.  He usually sits in the trees outside the kitchen window, or when I have the bedroom curtains open he will sit in the trees there. I hear him talking to me and will say hello to him.  This morning he sat right outside the office window where I was able to see him clearly since the leaves have fallen.  They say that when a cardinal visits, it can be a visit from someone who has passed away.  This morning I wondered if it was Mom saying hello.

   Finally today, I'm sharing some artwork I got for free from Wish.com, paying only to ship them, to add to my office space's warped sense of humor since I share it with the cat boxes.   I may have to get some orange Sharpie pens and color the white one to match Gracie.  I once had a tuxedo cat named Oreo who liked to sleep in the bathroom sink and may need to put some white toes and a little white stripe down the forehead of this one before I get both of them put in frames and hung.