October again . . .

Where has this year gone? Like last year, filled with Pandemic seclusion, I’ve been out and about mostly for necessities. Church is back, and that’s taking a lot of my time, but except for our short trip out West, we’ve laid low. It’s too soon to let our guard down totally. Sigh.

It seems things have changed drastically, in some cases, since we went into lockdown. Favorite restaurants, open for years, are now empty spaces. Stores are for lease which once held regular shopping spots. Even trees are gone - it seems as if there’s been a steady massacre of them this year by the county and highway departments. I hate to say it, but the external world is looking physically a little bit ugly. Plain and simple. I know change is inevitable, but it’s as if the ugly bug crept in while no one was looking, like those stink bugs that crawl through impossibly tiny spaces to infest your house.

I promise to get to work on the new Halloween story. To be honest, I forgot about it! I’ve been hard at work on the mystery, cozied up in my She Shed, the outside world at bay for a few hours a day. When I come out of my fictitious world, I admit I sometimes feel overwhelmed by how much needs to be done to improve our world, our society, our town. My small part feels like the proverbial drop in a very large bucket.