It’s literally October! The air has a tinge of cool to it when I take the dogs out before sunrise! (I’ll get into that horror in a second) The leaves are turning on the things that weren’t already dead in the backyard! The county fair has come and gone!

Speaking of: oh the county fair. The animals! The crafts! The food! The rides! The dust! The expense! The gross stuffed animal prizes!

I must say that it seems like it’s one of those things where I now can say some “back in my day” type stories. Like, when I was a kid there was a game of a huge wooden wheel (roulette style) with all these slivers of colors and you’d bet on a color and if it landed on it you’d win a porcelain doll with a dress the color you bet on. Or there were games where you’d win a goldfish, or parakeet, or iguana. (When my oldest was little my brother won an iguana. They handed it to him in a paper lunch bag stapled at the top. Thank GOODNESS we had an empty aquarium to give him that night- what did people do?! Just like, turn an iquana loose in a bathroom?! His name was Big Jim and he lived a surprisingly long time) They had cages of various breeds of chickens and pigeons in the animal section. The fair hamburgers were the best hamburgers ever. And when I was small there was a game where a guy would guess your middle name for $1 if you gave him your middle initial. He got it right on me and my brother. Probably an identity stealing thing…

All gone now of course.

No animal prizes (for the best). No unique and weird carnival games. No chickens in cages anymore- I guess it gets too hot now- this is recent to the last few years. Thanks climate change. The chickens were always such a favorite of mine. And heartbreakingly, the booth with the world’s best and greasiest hamburgers is gone. Replaced with a place with a neon sign instead of hand lettered plywood… sigh. Change is a bitch.

But what hasn’t changed is that if you enter things in the Home and Heritage divisions you get a free entry ticket- I usually enter cut herbs, veggies, cut flowers, and occasionally will enter some baked goods. We haven’t had to buy entry tickets in years.

I struggled to come up with enough entries though, so I had to get creative this year. I went out to cut some flowers… and realized the backyard had nary a flower to be found: rare for me but it’s been a BRUTALLY hot summer.

And so this happened:

I made a flower arrangement out of all the dead things in the backyard, put it in a vase with marks from evaporated water, titled it “The Texas Garden in Summer” and then laughed with my husband and wondered if they’d even let me enter it.

So turns out…

I’m non-plussed about it, as you can clearly see.

Also this?!?! And I had to take pictures for the paper?!?!

I’M SO EXCITED.

Maybe not all the changes are for the worse over there after all.

So that was cool.

In other news there is no news on the being sued front… as in, no news. The old company isn’t returning calls nor emails and refuses to meet, so I consider the whole thing well and truly dropped.

In other fall like news- my friend and I went on another cemetery tour with a local guide (I now know what I want to be when I retire) and used dousing rods to find graves. You can supposedly tell where a grave is and if the person is male or female by how the rods react. And while I’m a pretty huge sceptic about the whole thing it also worked exactly like how the guide said they would… so that’s weird.

Action shot.

My friend who I went with excitedly texted her husband about using the rods and how we’d found graves. He responded: “You found graves in a cemetery huh?” which made us laugh. Fyi if you ever want to feel young you just go on a historic cemetery tour. We were the youngest by at least 30 years.

In other news: reselling is going well. Periodically I do in depth analysis on what is the most profitable so I can be sure I’m maximizing my time and efforts, and found that vintage clothing is still in the top 3. (Art is #1, and Pottery and Glass is #2. Ethnic items are #4) And so, when I found this faded and stained beaded 60s sheath dress I knew there was potential. The beads were in great shape, the zipper worked… just the color was faded and it smelled like smoke.

This is already washed because as we well know by this point I am fully incapable of taking a true “Before” shot of any project. The water in my sink turned tea colored from all of the nicotine that came out of this. Gross.

Closer look at the fading and staining. I used all my knowledge from previous years of ice dying scarfs to overdye the dress a darker color and…

kapow! It turned out great and now has the potential for a new life! It cost $12- which was way to much for an unwearable dress honestly. The dye cost $7. And the bottle of cheap vodka I’m going to have to soak it in to get rid of the still lingering cigarette smell will cost about $15. Did everyone back then die of lung cancer? Good lord is that smell strong even 60 years later.

Anyway- it’ll sell for around $100, so count it as a win.

Not factored into the cost are any disposable gloves because I will never ever ever ever learn.

And looping back here- remember when I mentioned waking up before sunrise to take the dogs out? Yeah… this is my own doing.

You see this little jerk? Yeah. Well I guess I overpraised her for going potty outside during the potty training process because even though she can fit through the cat door (and therefore take HERSELF OUTSIDE LIKE A GOOD DOG WOULD) she barks incessantly for someone to come with her. So every morning is like this:

HUMAN!

WAKE UP! I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!

HUUUUMMMMAAAANNNN!

HURRY UP! I HAVE TO GO BUT I KNOW YOU LOVE WHEN I DO THIS! YOU ARNT GOING TO WANT TO MISS THIS!
HUMAN LET’S GO!

I no longer praise her enthusiastically when she goes outside.

No amount of thrown pillows can dissuade her from this habit.

Kill me.