October!

So here we are in October already! September flew by in a flurry of too much work and a week of a weird virus that actually sent me to the ER one day as I was worrying that the strange feeling of chest pressure could mean something scary about my heart. But after the appropriate poking and prodding and testing, my heart was determined to be totally fine, and I was told that there has been a virus going around with chest pressure and lightheadedness as common symptoms. So, I now can add the ER at Whidbey General to my list of newly explored places. (I’m feeling all better now.) 

So, fall! Those pears and apples up there are from our four baby fruit trees. The apples are quite yummy. We are unsure of the pear variety and waiting for them to ripen into something edible, but Caroline has been keeping a close watch and loves going down to pick our own fruit.

Saturday had me out and about again, to the farmers’ market of course for my first stop. It was fun to see the first appearance of pumpkins.

From there, I headed north to Oak Harbor to pick up prescriptions from the pharmacy and stock up on groceries. 

This particular store is a very busy one, especially on Saturdays, and they seem sparsely staffed so check out lines are very long. I have taken to using one of my favorite things from Covid-times: the order online/pick up delivery service. I put my grocery order in the night before, drove to the appointed parking space, called in my order number, and had a pleasant 10 minutes to read while a lovely clerk brought the groceries straight to my car. Voila, No waiting in massive lines. 

Speaking of groceries, I was very excited to find Mizithra cheese at a local grocery store. Mizithra is a sheep’s milk cheese that is yummy grated on pasta. The Spaghetti Factory restaurant, which was popular in southern CAlifornia during my college days, served (serves? Is the restaurant chain even still around?) grated mizithra cheese and browned butter on spaghetti, which was heavenly. My personal favorite was half mizithra and browned butter, and half marinara. I make that whenever I can find mizithra, so that was our dinner on Friday night. 

It also dawned on me on Saturday that it’s October, and now officially Pumpkin Spice Latte season. There aren’t any Starbucks (or other chains for that matter) on my end of the island, but Oak Harbor has a whole bunch of them. It felt like quite a treat to even walk into a Starbucks. In pre-Covid times, I often took my laptop to the Healdsburg Starbucks for a change-of-work-scenery, and that Starbucks vibe has a familiar and pleasant feel to me. It was quite nice to sit and read and and sip a bit right there.

Lest you think my Saturday sounds boring, I will have you know that I took the rest of my latte and enjoyed it while waiting in line at Woody’s Car Wash. My garage is still storing boxes, so my poor car lives outside these days. I figured it was time for a wash. Apparently a whole lot of other people felt similarly, because that line was LONG.

I saw this post on Facebook this week, which hit me with a big “OF COURSE” moment. Here in our new house, we have been living in a functional but still not fully unpacked state. And it has been making me feel overwhelmed and cranky. I think this post was meant just for me. So, today I got a whole lot more stuff put away and vacuumed the whole house, and I feel a whole lot better. There is more to do… and will be more to do for quite some time… but it is definitely progress.

I will reward myself with an episode or two of Redemption, a gripping British mystery

I am watching on Britbox. I do love a good foreign mystery. 

What have you done to celebrate the arrival of fall?