Fall

 Hey There - Good Morning!

I'm happy to report that I survived my work meeting yesterday.  It was surprisingly not as long as I anticipated and not quite as long winded with unnecessary talk as I expected.  There was still much that was said unnecessarily, but overall a better experience than I thought.  One thing that annoys me is when people say they will get something to you in a couple of hours and then it is much, much later.  The finance guy promised to send out the "master - parent- company" spreadsheet in a few hours after our meeting...so I assumed I would have it by 3 or 4 at the latest...maybe 5.  Nope - it came through the airways close to 10 p.m. last night.  My day (most of it) today will be spent completing that spreadsheet.

However, there was delight yesterday.  I spied this tree along the drive into my office complex.

Gorgeous, isn't it?  Just brilliant.  There are still a number of trees around here like that.  And some that I call half and half:  the top half has changed to red or orange or gold or a mix of colors and the bottom is still vibrant green.  However, today is a heavy rain day with the remnants of the hurricane, so by tomorrow many trees will be bare branches (still beauty there my friends).

My drive to work is very pretty.  I typically drive through part of Valley Forge Park.  There is a house right at the edge of the park that every year is decorated for Halloween.  Yesterday I finally pulled into a parking lot across the street (Valley Forge Post Office) and took some pictures.  First the whole thing:

You should be able to click to enlarge.  I like the leg sticking out of the cart on the far right - lol.  And here are two close ups - first the left side and then the right.

The bottom picture looks like a skeleton in a bathtub!

I think there are more decorations this year.  Maybe it's that people are home more and have time to do it?  Or folks are so bored with staying at home?  Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the Halloween decorations.  I'd love to get more pictures, but many are on busy roads where there is no space to pull over.

Last night I ended up doing a little baking!  I had been thinking about pumpkin bread...with cranberries and with pecans.  So I made some.

My kitchen smelled so good while this was baking.  The loaf on the left did break in two after I took it out of the pan - lol.  That will be our loaf.  I will most likely give the second loaf to Colin & Mailing.

That's it for me this Thursday morning.  I've got to get cracking on my regular Thursday morning financial reports and then buckle down and get that spreadsheet completed.  Wishing you all a wonderful "it's almost Friday" kind of day.