A Big Change in the Weather

This has been a long and unusually warm fall. I ate my last little tomato last week. Of course the quality went down, but still, better than anything we’ll buy at the store for the next nine months. The temperature plummeted suddenly. Last night it went down to 25. We had supper with friends in Ptown and a wonderful evening there. I have been putting away summer clothes all week and hope to transfer summer raincoats, jackets, etc today and bring out warmer stuff. I need gloves and warm scarves all of a sudden. Woody only turned off the outdoor shower two days ago.I hired a new assistant in early October and was training her. Since she said she did not know how to use a Mac and the Mac in the downstairs office is quite old, we bought a new PC for her to use. She seemed ill at ease with it and didn’t seem to know how to do the normal things with it. Then she quit suddenly via email. I am still trying to get the post office key back from her.I had some other calls but rather than waste another three weeks training someone, I asked my friend Dale to come in one day a week until he goes to work as a docent for the Truro lighthouse in June. He filled in for me two years ago when I had to fire that assistant and before I hired Penny, who was fine but got a well paying full time job running an office.I lost a lot of time from my revision of my novel doing the training. Having an assistant only one day a week will mean doing more myself, but it worked out satisfactorily last time Dale helped me.I brought in a number of plants in pots and potted some more. Xena has already started nibbling the begonias. Woody covered the Swiss chard, leeks and Brussels sprout with reemay, which should offer protection. It’s supposed to be just as frigid tonight. Of course, in midwinter these temperatures might feel like a reprieve from much colder days and nights, but going from such warm days and nights to what we’re experiencing now is a shock to the body. Today Woody is going to replace the big screens on the sunporch with the windows. Although the sunporch is unheated, sometimes it’s mild enough in November and December to use it. The sun can heat it up enough for it to be relatively comfortable.I am still discovering things that I lost when I made the mistake of upgrading to El Capitan. I must exchange my warm weather dresses and skirts, shorts and linen pants and tanktops for warm sweaters, warm skirts, sox, tights and heavier pants. But when Woody asks me, which old suitcases should I bring out from the storage closet, having lost the document called summer storage along with all my other personal files, I have no idea. We just grab something and hope it’s relevant. Another nuisance is that I’ve lost everyone’s sizes. It just goes on. Yesterday I found that I’ve lost part of one chapter of the novel I’ve been working on. It was a section I had to do research to write. Now I have to start over on it.Today I’m making my mother’s lamb stew. It was one of the few dishes from her small repertoire I remember fondly and have reconstituted for our use. It’s good weather for a hearty stew. This week I have a long long dental appointment on Thursday to replace two crowns that have decay under them. I’m dreading it, of course.