My pirate skeleton recently obtained an equally skeletal bride.
Do you remember that song? Kenny Rogers? Haaahaa.
Anyway.
Brittany and Ember stopped with us for the night last Friday, on their way from Florida to Tennessee.
This is Pepper. He's getting restless.
TG and I saw them during our March visit to Oklahoma and again in June at a wedding, but Audrey and Dagny and Erica and Chad had not seen them since last Christmas.
There were tears shed as everyone hugged it out.
Brittany was still heartbroken over the situation at her grandparents' house, and she'd had to say goodbye to them that morning, and had not been getting enough rest, and it was all a bit much.
No more feathers, no more meat, but Cassius Crow is still pretty neat.
But everyone relaxed and Brittany told us about her hurricane adventures. I had made a big Crock Pot full of chili, so there was time to talk and just be together.
TG had gone with Dagny on a school field trip to Charleston that day (they toured the USS Yorktown), so we had to wait a little while for them to get home.
(After the school field trip was over, TG, who had driven separately, took Dagny to The Citadel to look around, and then to the home of his old basketball coach, who lives in the area.)
It wasn't chilly outside but we had chili inside.
It has continued warm and summery here, with cool nights and mornings, and lots of sun.
The leaves on our white oak in the front yard are beginning to change in earnest.
But you probably want to know about what is going on in Florida.
Brittany told us that Andrew, together with several men from the church where Brittany's grandfather is the pastor, had thrown themselves into gutting the house.
Go-withs include shredded cheddar, sour cream, and banana pepper rings.
First, everything had to be removed: every stick of furniture and every other soggy thing, is now out in the yard.
Brittany's grandmother, through frequent bouts of tears, was tasked with sorting her possessions, salvaging what she could and parting with what she could not.
Grandpa's late-model SUV was towed away, a total loss.
These are my only jack 'o lantern decorations. Boo.
People were (probably still are) cruising up and down the streets in pickup trucks, looking to haul off anything that has been brought out of houses, and maybe make a few dollars off it.
Brittany had to protect her grandmother's waterlogged and ruined furniture from disappearing, before they even knew whether there was any hope of saving it.
(The answer is, there probably isn't. Everything will have to be replaced. But still.)
Hop in and we'll go for a spin.
Of course, most of the neighbors are in the same position, what with the catastrophic flooding from a nearby canal having been pretty thorough and far-reaching.
At any rate by the time they had concluded what work they could do and Andrew had to leave to go back to Oklahoma, the four-bedroom ranch-style house was empty.
The hardwood floors had been removed and the bottom half of the drywall ripped out down to the studs.
And just like that, she was back in my arms.
Brittany sent me a video; the interior of the house looks like a partial cage, with huge fans running to help with the drying process.
A contractor will still have to assess the foundation and the entire structure to determine whether it can be rebuilt.
Building supplies which were already expensive and in short supply before the hurricane, are even more so now.
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Insurance adjusters are reluctant to give anyone the great good news that they're hoping for.
The last I heard, power was still out and there was no running water.
I have asked Brittany to write a guest post on this blog, to tell about her experience with Hurricane Ian and the havoc it wrought in the lives of her grandparents.
Meet Jerome the Scented Gnome. He has no discernible smell.
Brittany was born in Fort Myers and grew up in that area, so it was hard for her to witness the destruction firsthand.
She said she would do her best to write about it, and I'll encourage her to follow through on that.
Meanwhile it is already ten eleven twenty-two, and I wonder if I have time to turn around twice before it's November.
If you visit before Thanksgiving, you will see this wreath on my door.
I need to show you my October decorations.
Notice I did not say Halloween decorations. I don't do Halloween but I love October decor because I like cemeteries and skeletons and skulls.
I like them year round but in October I let them all come out to play.
We just got these pumpkins and mums on Sunday.
TG said during dinner on October first: I see all the creepy stuff is here.
But it's not meant to be creepy! I said. It's supposed to be campy and funny. Not scary. He took it back.
(If you recall, I had the table decorated ultra-autumn for Labor Day. Those decorations stayed on display throughout September and will make their second appearance for the month of November -- or, until the day after Thanksgiving.)
The orange fairy lights look super cute at night.
(You know what happens the day after Thanksgiving.)
My October table runner is black with silver studs in a spider web design. I got the hearse at TJ Maxx several years ago.
Stephanie and her family gave me the pirate skeleton in 2020; I added his bride just this year, when I saw her at Kroger.
This lantern sits beside the front door. The "candle" lights up on a timer.
Isn't she darling, and are they not adorable together?
I have several sets of graveyard, skull, and skeleton salt and pepper shakers. You know: Here Lies Salt and Here Lies Pepper. Stuff like that.
The sugar skull S&P set was given to me by a friend, who also gave me the silver plastic skull drinking jug.
No bones about it: They were meant for each other.
The heavy clear glass skull, which holds a candle and glows ominiously, has been around for a long time.
Cassius Crow is a bird skeleton that chills in a hanging cage. He's cool.
There's a ceramic bucket, creamy white with black skulls all over it. It sits out on one of my island shelves year round.
Brittany, fresh from the hurricane relief effort.
I have two black pull-back cars, both Chevrolets -- a 1947 and a 1957 model. And yes, the grandkids take those down and play with them when they come over.
(I also have a fire-engine red car and a bright yellow one. We call them ketchup and mustard.)
Yes; you're right. I need a black Cadillac.
A friend got me this at the dollar store.
Speaking of black, there is a sparkly black raven. He's been around a while and is missing some toes but he's still in the game.
In the barest of nods to jack o' lanterns, I have a hollow ceramic pumpkin with the requisite triangle cut-out eyes and nose, that I sit on top of a candle. I bought it at Walgreens at least twenty-five years ago -- maybe longer. The sticker on top of the box it came in says it cost two ninety-nine.
A smaller scary-funny knick-knack depicting two little pumpkins sitting by a tree, also holds a candle.
Because everyone needs a skull pail.
This year I got three new gnomes. One set of two, a boy and a girl, I showed you a few weeks ago. I added Jerome the Scented Gnome and he sits in the wooden tray beside the autumn house and an owl salt shaker.
Have you discovered the salt and pepper shakers on sale in the Cracker Barrel general store? They are ninety-nine cents apiece and they have a bunch of them for every season.
That's where I get most of mine. They're basically irresistible. They make cute gifts too, when you want to give someone just a little something, or to tuck into a gift basket.
These sugar skull salt and pepper shakers contain neither salt nor pepper.
Outside, it's like this: on Sunday TG and I bought two pumpkins and a mum for the apple-green bench that sits beneath the oak tree.
Several weeks ago I found a very impressive lantern to sit beside the front door. It has a fake candle that lights up for five hours each night, on a timer. I love its big brass circle handle.
The black wrought-iron railing is spangled with orange fairy lights. It looks cute at night. We're the only ones on our street who have those.
You might say that I go nuts for skulls.
I was talking to Erica the other day about fall decorations and we were remembering that there was a time when -- for many years, actually -- I decorated for one season only: Christmas.
My house was always kitted out with stuff that (I hoped) was attractive and tasteful, but it was only at Christmastime that I brought out special decorations.
We decided that, pretty much before the year two thousand, fall decorations weren't as much of a thing. In the years since twenty-ten or so, websites like Pinterest and Instagram have helped to propel seasonal home decorating into the retail stratosphere.
There are orange fairy lights on the ledge too.
At any rate, the obsession with fall decorations is pretty intense and no doubt is big business.
All I know is that I like it. I like making a big deal out of all the seasons, especially in the areas of my house where everyone gathers when they come over.
Eventually, last Friday night, we devoured our chili supper with all the trimmings, and there was a key lime pie with a pot of coffee, afterwards.
Dagny loves this little house. I told her that after I am gone (for good), it's hers.
Following a good sleep and a quiet morning, Brittany and Ember left on Saturday a little after noon and made their way to East Tennessee and their new house.
They will be back for Thanksgiving, along with our Andrew.
And that will be here before any of us knows it.
And that is all for now.
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Happy Tuesday
