of leaves, windows, old age, and prison

The ticking leaf bomb exploded two weekends ago. It looked like this.



Notice how many leaves were still on the tree at this point as well...
I just finished filling the last of thirty five 39 gallon trash bags yesterday. We used a dozen of them to create The Walkway Of Doom for Halloween.
Next year I'm hiring someone else to clean them up...

Today I have spent painting the half bath and installing windows 7 on my newer laptop. Install went well, no problems so far. We'll see how it works when I start editing my photos. Oh, and I joined a camera club last night that meets at Ink To Media, the business I'm going to start working with to get my photography out in the local galleries. I'm getting excited about that, and the camera club has some great activities planned as well.

Terry's best friend Becky has a mother who is in ailing health. The woman is only 73, but is in worse shape than my mom was at 83 when she passed away. I find it so sad how some people lose their quality of life at such an early age (well considering my grandfather made it to 96, dad 88, and mom 83, it's early). Becky's mom suffers from dementia, and is so frail she falls quite often, and today I had to run over to Becky's house to help get her up because Hanna, Becky's daughter couldn't lift her. In the past Becky's husband (I'll call him Steve here) has been there to take care of her most the time, but now he's in jail, serving seven to nine months for a white collar crime he was convicted of in October. Terry and I told Becky we'll be on call to help until Steve gets out next year.

One thing that I've always been afraid of is the thought of going to jail. I would not do well there, I know that. Already Steve has told Becky about how his cell mate got the shit beat out of him because he didn't share enough food (that was sent to him) with another prisoner, and how he's made friends with a big burly black guy who has become his protector. Steve, who is 62, is a really great guy, always willing to help out at a moments notice, an incredible cook, and I've enjoyed getting to know him this year. He and Becky helped us with moving both houses, and picking out the new carpet for my house (he used to sell flooring). We plan to visit him once he is transferred back over to eastern Washington in a few months. That will be a new experience for me...