Standard Time

The annual return to standard time always starts out so nicely - an extra hour of sleep on a weekend is never a bad thing, after all. And then, come Monday morning, I always kind of enjoy that extra light first thing in the morning, at least at first. It's cheering to start the work day with the sun shining through the windows of the brand new building at Toro (more on that in a later post this month...). I get a lovely view from just outside my cube. But then... then it gets to be about 4:30 and the light is already beginning to fade. Especially on a day like today when it was cloudy. That part is... less fun. 11 hours of visible light is not quite enough, and the worst is yet to come. According to Weather Underground, tomorrow will be 2m 43s shorter. But as many people said to me today, unprompted, at least it hasn't snowed yet! We must look on the bright side.

One of the many traditions of this time of year has always been the great raking of leaves over at Chez Gzmoohoo to prepare for the city vacuum men (see here). Alas, the Moohoo family now hires their guy to take care of that kind of thing. And here at our house, we have invested in an excellent piece of Toro Equipment (the Ultra Vac, if you must know) that makes all that raking unnecessary. Is it weird that I kind of miss it? I don't miss the blisters or occasional back pain, but it was a nice excuse to get outside in the waning nice days of fall. EMSA, the main yard maintenance member of the household, pronounces the Ultra Vac to be awesome, so I guess it's a net win.

In other signs of fall, Timberwolves Basketball has started up again. We went to the home opener against the Detroit Pistons - excellent seats as usual, thanks to my father-in-law:

Well before game time, obviously.
A good time was had by all, and the wolves were victorious as an added bonus. Plus, halftime entertainment was provided by the one and only Vanilla Ice. He proved to be way more entertaining than I would have ever expected.

And now, today's photo of the cats. Do you think maybe it's time to take out the recycling?



Comments

Santini said…
I have much the same view of the change to Standard Time. Mornings are good -- but it gets dark way too early. And as you point out, it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better.
Gino said…
Cats roosting in the recycle bin, not ideal.

But no real harm, I suppose.
Emily M said…
Cats in a box full of boxes always kind of amuses me. :-)
Mom said…
I miss the raking, too, and I love the cat photo.