I wish I could do the firewood thing, but my fireplace is not well designed and it puffs a lot of smoke into the house. I have the grate in place to support a board and a candle rack. I find the light of candles burning in there gives the same general look to the room, so I buy cheap candles at year-end sales and garage sales.

This afternoon I decided to take down the tomato crop. It wasn't ripening the way I hoped; some of them were going from green to soft without getting red, and there were mites making a home on one part of the wall of green. This fall crop was not a great one; lots of tomatoes, yes, but the snails got all of the early ones and the frost was too soon for the rest to ripen. I'll start the fall crop much earlier next year.

I've pulled out some lights and am working on setting up a couple of shrubs, and then I'll go over to the local garden center to pick up replacement bulbs for one string of the big old fashioned bulbs.

Taking my son out for dinner tonight, to sit down and discuss college options. At home it's too easy for him to be distracted by things. He has to decide to take over the work on this, and I have to be supportive, but I can't do it for him. So we'll talk about what he wants to do and we'll work from there. It has to be finished in the next 3 weeks. He has a full scholarship offered from one school, due to his good grades and national scholar standing. And several others as much as saying they'll let him go fully funded, but the top of the top Tier 1 schools, while they may also have the funding, we have to work harder to get it. But they're in reach. That's what we need to talk about.

SRS