This morning I heard a crashing noise and went to the window to investigate. The pumpkin (which we never made the time to carve) had been knocked off of our deck. The culprit? The largest squirrel I have ever seen.

This squirrel was not just large in size, but also in girth. It tried running away as soon as it noticed us, but it only managed a waddle. It was very obviously trying to run as fast as it could, and very obviously failing. We got to get a good look at it.

Some squirrels can have large tails, which will sometimes make them appear larger than they really are. This squirrel was certainly one with a large tail. However, there was no denying that this squirrel was extremely overweight. I can not help but wonder how it has managed to stay alive this long. I suppose that it is ready to hibernate for the winter, but watching it run does not make me believe that it has any chance of escaping predators.

I really need to start keeping my camera closer to hand.

One thing I really do not understand is why people feel it is necessary to use my yard as their garbage dump. I can sort of understand (well, not really, but can at least fathom) why trash winds up in the road when folk throw their crap in the back of a pickup truck. This is Maine; ²/₃ of us do have one. Why they can’t secure their trash is beyond me, but at least it might sometimes be accidental.

I don’t think that is where the trash in my yard comes from, though. The trash in my yard is at least 60-70% fast food containers. Why should I have to dispose of it? If you don’t want to throw it in your own trash, then just bring it in with you to throw out the next time you eat fast food!

My idea of fun is not slodging around in my yard after dark in the rain with a head lamp looking for somebody’s latest paper cup and plastic bag.

I am glad that I told my wife not to bother buying more candy, because we only had two trick or treaters tonight.

One came while I was out running, and the other came while I was cooking dinner. The one that came while I was home was a soccer player with a screwdriver going through her head from the forehead through her chin.

I am a little disappointed. Maybe if we had had time to carve our pumpkin into a jack o’ lantern we would have had more trick or treaters. At least I got to see a bunch of kids out in the neighborhood while I was running; they didn’t know what to make of the bobbing head lamp rushing towards them.

Thankfully, I spent more time raking the leaves on Friday evening. Yesterday the rain did not hold off until lunchtime like I thought it would; torrential downpours and high winds greeted me when I woke up in the morning. Today is not much better on the wind front; while the sky is plenty sunny, the winds coming through are just as bad as I used to get when I lived in Rochester, New York.

There is a tree across the road that was snapped in half during a storm some months back. The top half of it is barely attached to the truck and swings down rather haphazardly. When it is windy, I thought that I could hear it creaking in the wind, and have considered climbing up and finishing the removal of the top half. My own laziness, no real need, and the fact that I do not own that land all combined to keep me behind my own property line. When I ran by this morning, though, I discovered that the creaking noise was coming from a different tree anyway. That tree is still intact; it just likes to creak in the wind.

There is a tree across the river from me that has been swaying mightily as well. This is really surprising to me, since the tree’s diameter is over 30 inches. I can understand the branches at the top blowing in the wind, but looking out the wind you can see the base of the trunk moving back and forth. The tree looks vibrant, so I doubt that it is rotting inside.

This evening when I got home from work, I raked the leaves. I have no idea how well of a job I did, but we had two days of sunshine so I had to get out there. I did promise that I would, after all. It was pitch black by the time I finished. I was wearing a small head lamp, but I’ll see how well I did tomorrow after the sun comes up.
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There are a lot of trees on my property. This time of year, that means that there are a lot of leaves in my yard. I started raking a few weeks ago, but if you look out there now you would not be able to tell. The problem is that the first snowfall is not far off, and the leaves have still not been raked.

There has not been more than two days of sunshine running for a couple weeks now. I do not really have any desire to rake wet leaves; I’d prefer that they be dry or at least damp. Every time that I get two days of sun in a row, storm clouds come up and we get three days of rain. I am starting to wonder if I am going to have a chance to rake the leaves before I leave on vacation for my next marathon.

My thinking is that I will not wait for the third day of sun to start raking next time. If I can get two days, I will be out there even if it means going out there at 10:00 at night.

I was hanging out in my back yard with my uncle this weekend, and was telling him that the trout that I had seen were just small ones. Not two minutes later, a couple of 2 or 3 pounders started swimming by right next to us.

The fish have grown a bit since I last saw them. There are still a few small ones in there as well. I wonder if the bigger ones live in the brook, or whether they got flushed a couple weeks ago when the dam was opened up.

Either way, I definately need to get some line and hooks for my fishing pole. I also need some oars for my duck boat. Next spring, I will definately be getting it out into the water. This year it never happened, which is a bit disappointing.

On an unrelated note to home ownership, my running career has gotten me into the local newspaper, the Portland Press Herald. I wrote about this at my other website, Run to Win. Feel free to drop by and take a look.

The article is also online, but without the picture, at Maine Today.com.

One thing that I love about living next to a body of water (even if it is only a tiny brook) is listening to the rain. I always loved being at my mother’s camp (and now her house since it can not really be called a camp anymore) when it was raining, because in the summers especially you got to fall asleep to one of two things: the sound of rain on the water, or the sound of loons calling to one another. I find both very relaxing for some reason.

At least until it starts getting too cold, I tend to leave my window open when I am sitting at my computer. My computer puts out a lot of heat, and I like having fresh air. I work in a windowless room next to a server rack most days, so an open window is nice. Times like now I get to listen to the rain hitting the water and it is very relaxing. Rain landing on your lawn or on the road just does not sound quite the same.

One of the great things about having our own house is that I no longer have to walk down two flights of stairs and then around to the back of an unlit building to try to grill my food. This summer, we went through about a tank and a half of propane grilling our dinners. We also ate outside a few times, which meant that the local insect population got to have a pretty good go at us.

Citronella candles certainly make eating outside much more enjoyable, especially now that it is getting darker earlier and twilight is much more likely to come while we are outside. The citronella candles keep most of the insects away. About the only thing that is not bothered by them seems to be the ants, which are much fewer and farther between lately.
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