Had a busy labor day weekend here. Finally finished putting the fence across the rest of the yard. And we put a small portion in a corner of the back yard, where someone drove into our yard this summer (we know this because we found tire tracks and a beer bottle the next morning). That pole was put in with LOTS of cement. At least this should keep my plants safe.

Michael’s mother and her new husband came for a biref visit Saturday–just in time to enjoy all the football game traffic. We went to the Stonewall Jackson Heritage Arts & Crafts Festival with my parents on Sunday. As a craft fair it’s got nothing on Ripley, but it’s a lot closer than Ripley. I got a pair of earrings, and some very delicious chocolate ice cream.

Monday we planted some new plants–a Coral Beauty Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster dammeri ‘Coral Beauty’), a Japanese holly (Ilex crenata ‘Compacta’), three Blue Pacific Juniper plants (Juniperus conferta ‘Blue Pacific;), a new clematis, and a bunch of bulbs to plant when it gets cold. (Remind me in November how excited I am about those bulbs when it’s time to go and plant them.) I also have a new heather (Calluna vulgaris Rubrum), hopefully this one will do a little better than the first, which is surviving, but not thriving. So with the transplanting and such, I think I’m ready for fall. I’ve also found plant shelves for all the plants I need to bring in, which is another important things. Still, the house will be pretty full some first frost.

I also finally put up a new picture on my main page. I apologize in advance for anyone with a modem–it’s a relatively large picture and comes up slowly. The good thing is that at least the rest of the page loads up around it, so you don’t have to wait for the links. Oh, the picture is of a flower on one of my lavender plants.

And to top it off, I logged into USAA to see if Michael had a paycheck deposited last week, and while I was there I noticed a bunch of strange charges on our credit card. Apparently the number had been stolen. Luckily the fantastic people at USAA cleared it up immediately, but the situaiton was a bit disconcerting since the only purchases on that card were: monthly cell phone bill, monthly ISP bill, WVU tuition, and domain name reregistration. We don’t use the card for anything else, which leads me to believe that one of those four places had their credit card files compromised. My guess would be the domain registration business, but it’s hard to say. If it’s one of the others, it would be more disturbing since the cell phone bill and ISP bill are automatic monthly charges.

We talked to my grandmother, cousin Pat is doing okay. No one seems to know when she’ll start her chemotherapy, but she was supposed to be up and walking around at the hospital Sunday.

Also, I got a message from a good friend–his mother is dying–the doctors said she has about two weeks left. She’s been sick for years, but that doesn’t mean things will be easy for them. I hope that the entire process will be as easy and as comfortable as possible for them.

With all that, plus some other stuff I’m just not going to write about, I’m still feeling blue–like I want to turn off all the lights and listen to the Cowboy Junkies.

But this too, shall pass.