I also impulse-bought a string of Halloween lights for $6.99 at Aldi, and if we get them hung up today, I'll post a picture on FB. Now that it's October, I'm on the spooky train. Oh! I can get the metal skeleton out of the attic and put him in the yard, too!

I just put up my new Halloween lights! A string of spiders across the door, and purple lights going down the railings, to go with the purple door. As a middle-aged person, I am obsessed with my minimum effort, maximum impact lighting situation I have designed for Christmas and can now extend to any holiday.

Timelies all!

Oy. Found that Mr. S had taken all his underwear and socks out of the dresser and dropped them on the floor. Which wouldn't be too awful except he had also upended his dirty laundry bin on the floor as well. I am currently washing all the clothing found on his floor.

My Halloween lights went up last weekend, but I need to get another set of pumpkin lights because one string stopped working already.

I think what I miss the most about my normal "go to work at an actual building" life is simply the ability to get in the zone. There are many parts of my job I like enough that I can handle doing them even with the constant interruptions of parenthood and husbandhood, but the things I dread - grading tests, entering grades, making homework assignments - are so much more challenging. I have a hard time doing them at night or early in the morning, too, simply due to brain function.

Rosie (cat) has in the last couple months started behaving like a low-battery smoke detector with an attitude when she thinks it's nearing meal time. Meh. Meh. Meh. MEOWRRRRR! Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh.

I always worked from home but I miss being able to go to a coffee shop or to cowork with a friend, or even just to have some kind of exciting plan for later that was a hard stop on my day, to get some focus and momentum.

meara, I had a neighbor who would walk around our block before settling into his home office, and walk around the other way at the end of the work day. He said if nothing else, having to put on outside pants helped with the shifting of mental gears.

I miss going to the salad bar at T&C on Fridays: Jim and I would walk the half mile down, load a container, go to Waterfront Park if the weather was good, walk back up the hill. It was a "Hey, almost weekend!" signal.

That's what I need, some kind of pleasant routine or ritual to help my brain make the transition from home to work and vice versa.

I go out to water my plants and feed alley cats just before and just after work to provide a transition. Though I'll confess a few times I've shut down my work email and napped before doing the latter.

Just got back from the Otter Lake bar where there were 3 other patrons and the bartender. The other patrons were buying us drinks and reminiscing about my dad (who has been gone 35 years), so that was nice. Super tipsy, but backspace and squiggly line keep me coherent.