Even with hot weather I can feel the changing of the seasons (the quality of the light this time of year) - I found myself charging a couple of other backup devices around the house. The Stanley Power Supply for lamps and a radio is now fully-charged, and I have a few other things around the house (a Thermos camping lantern, etc.) to round up and charge. Even with the nextdoor generator in the back yard and a cord run between us during outages it still pays to be ready. All it takes is for them to be out of town on a cruise and I'm back to square one.

The batch of purple Duratuff goblets I listed on eBay a few weeks ago are just about perfect - as close to new condition without being new as possible, so I'll leave them at a higher price. But the current set of small purple tumblers are smooth with a few scratches (they were probably stacked over the top of each other). More condition descriptions required for these puppies for a lower return, but they will clear some space when they go. That's my weekend project. I did revise one handbag listing; I did a search to see how many others of that brand are for sale and realized I'd buried the lede - the name of the maker was at the end of the list of attributes. Fixed that.

It feels real now—the calendar page is turned to September. As a kid I was torn - any kind of birthday celebration was overshadowed by the end of the summer break from school. My birthday often coincided with the first day, at least the first week. It was too early in the year for the teacher to know and invite my Mom to supply cupcakes for the class to celebrate, like they did for others later. Then about 25 years ago I had a cancer diagnosis (and it was this time of year) that after a couple of surgeries was gone; I realized every year after that was a gift. So here comes 70, and it is what it is.

As a gift to myself and the kitchen I finally evicted the puny dying Pothos sprouts in a pot near the back kitchen window, stirred the soil then put in some water-rooted Spider Plants (also called Airplane plants for the sprouts they send out with new little plants on the end). These plants have been in a container on the window over the sink all summer and needed planting. There's one other Pothos in that area that is doing a bit better but I'll take it down and repot it for a boost.