The Frost On the Pumpkin?

Well, if it was there, it was blown away by the forceful winds we are having here!
photo by Joy Osmond
The glass table on the back deck was blown to the edge, and I'm so glad we turned it over before it fell off. Doug was in the front and the vinyl swimming pool blew over the wall and out onto the front yard. Our trees are in good shape, but we had a lot of cleaning to do, and still will. The front porch seems to catch all the dirt and leaves, so when it's windy I have to sweep and clean it a lot. At least this year there are houses in a cul-de-sac behind us, so they seem to break the force and the windows don't sound like they will break any second, and there isn't much of the sound of sand and gravel hitting like last year.
After the clean up (we looked so cool in our protective goggles), we went down to DCA for Doug's birthday lunch (since we have our Poe/Gorey event on his birthday this year). We also rode on Toy Story, then came back to get the kids after school. While we were there, I was teasing Doug that he still had dirt in his ears from the wind, even after a shower ;)

Doug's sister Pauline sent these pictures from this weekend, they have a lot of fun doing several events at Calico every year, and selling their period books and poetry, etc.

"My friends and I walked in the Calico Days Parade yesterday as the Women's Temperance Society. The crowd loved us and we even had an "argument" with a bunch of cowboys. The town mayor tried to get us to kiss him, while very obviously sporting a hip flask in his coat pocket. We got 2nd place in the Walking Novelty division."