Dang, I Almost Missed Fall!

So, yesterday was fall here in Austin. Hope you were in town. Because I know how *I* hate it when I take a day trip and miss a season.

I KNOW it was fall because all the leaves fell off the trees. All of them. Right into our pool.

My little Jane was/is home sick. The thing about Jane is she gets SO sick when she gets sick that it scares the pants off of everyone. Granted, this was worse when she couldn't take oral medication. No, seriously, any child's medication (which comes in liquid form, right?) hits her stomach and comes immediately right back up. Every doctor we've ever met has attributed this to some failure on my part to administer the medication. So, they always try to show me how it's done. You know, by a professional. And, oh, look, now that professional is covered with vomit. Sorry 'bout that. I did try to warn you.

I mean, it's not like I haven't been resourceful in trying to get her to take her medicine--because I used to suspect that it was Jane's Will of Iron that MADE her throw it back up. But even when undetectable in ice cream and gladly eaten, it comes right back up.

Now that Jane can swallow pills, it's better. But she still gets sicker than any child I've ever seen. Or maybe it's just that the contrast between Jane at Full Force and Jane When Sick is so huge, it's really scary. I don't know.

Anyway, we got to observe fall yesterday when the temperature dropped from the nineties into the fifties and THIS morning, it's in the forties, which officially mean winter here. Of course, tomorrow it will probably be summer again. (My mom calls the summer that happens after the Day of Fall the "Native American Summer". She's very politically correct.)

Anyway, while Jane did a movie marathon in between naps, I tried to keep up with the amazing amount of debris in the pool, which, if left to steep, makes the pool turn green. See? Still blue and looking pretty clean.

It was possibly the best work out I've had all year! I actually felt sort of grateful to Coop, who refuses to cover our pool. (He thinks that if he buys a cover for the pool, it's an admission that summer ends. We can't have that, now, can we?) I can't complain too much since he does all the work on the pool year 'round. Except for on the Day of Fall, I guess.

In the comments yesterday, the Bloghore asked why I wasn't wearing hand knit socks with my boots. The truth is that I don't have any. I like to give my knitted socks away and as I was knitting away on my last pair, it became clear to me that those socks were meant for my beloved Vet, who had to put her dog Buddy down in September. I called them Buddy Socks. It turns out that purple is her favorite color. Look! She sent me pictures! Here she is with one of her greyhounds. If you'd like to read his story, here's the link. Click here. (Warning: it might make you have to write a big check to the organization. (And, um, it's kind of graphic. But an amazing story.)

I am knitting another pair, as we speak, though. Can't wait until they reveal whose they are. Actually, I'm hoping they might be my first socks for my Christmas knitting. Good thing my family doesn't read this blog because I can tell y'all that everyone is getting socks from me this year.