Sunday, September 11, 2005

It's almost Autumn

Well, well...here in Central Florida we spent the past week wondering what Ophelia was going to do - be a hurricane or a tropical storm...or a tropical depression. Then, once she made up her mind with that, where would she strike? Fortunately for us, she was too indecisive on all fronts and moved up north where cooler waters will take some punch out of the system. Hopefully she won't hit the Carolinas.

Today was spent taking care of my little buggy. She has a new battery. The previous one was in there over four years, which is more than the usual life expectancy. I didn't want to get stranded somewhere due to a dead battery, so I opted to be proactive. The oil and oil filter is changed, fuel injection cleaner put in the fuel tank, tires rotated and pressure checked. Sometime in the not-too-distant future I'm going have to take her in for a full workover, you know, belts changed, fluids replaced, brake pads replaced, etc. Hope to drive her into the ground unless she gets totaled first.

This past week I got bit by three ants. Apparently they were poisonous or something like that, because I swelled up. :-( One bite was on my right forearm. The whole underside swelled up, the muscle was really tender. The second bite was at the base of my left hand where it connects to the wrist. You'd think that because the skin much thicker on the hand, that a tiny ant wouldn't do much damage - NOT! The area around the bite, AND my wrist swelled up. The third bite was on my left leg, behind my kneecap. Made it quite difficult to bend at the knee! I've been bit numerous times over the years and have never had this kind of reaction. But it's not high on my priority list to research what kind of ants exist down here and which, if any, have some kind of poison that causes reactions.

Next week is the official start of Autumn, is it not? Can't wait...get this humidity out of here! For those of you up north, you should be seeing colors soon. I do miss those, along with the crisp mornings, hot apple cidar, fresh apples picked off the trees, all the fresh fruit - Yum!! Enjoy!

Do have a great week, wherever you are...