CHALK ONE UP FOR THE OLD MAN, AND REMEMBERING INDIAN CIGARS

PAGODA DOGWOOD LEAVES COLORING

MORNING SUN AND FOG

CATALPA TREE IN WASHBURN

CATALPA LEAVES AND CIGAR-LIKE FRUITS.

Wednesday, 8:15 AM.  52 degrees F, wind SE, calm at present.  The sky is clear but there is moderately heavy fog over the lake, and the sun shining through it gives it an ethereal inner light.  The humidity is very high at 97% and the decks and grass are wet with heavy dew.  The barometer is trending down but is still pretty high at 30.01".  It should turn out to be a nice day, and the lawn needs to be mowed.
   Yesterday was spent doing a number of necessary chores, including leaving the Honda Ridgeline pickup truck at the dealer in Ashland to have the radio reprogrammed.  You may remember my blog of several days ago, in which I described the ridiculous situation of changing a battery, which caused the truck's radio to go dead and  need to be reprogrammed which couldn't be done because I never was given the necessary code numbers to do it and the radio had to be removed to get the serial number from the back of the radio and the manufacturer contacted by the dealer to get the right numbers to key in to revive the radio, whew!  Got that?
   The cost would have been $47 plus tax, but I made such a fuss that the dealer did it for nothing, probably just to get rid of me.  Even washed the vehicle, including vacuuming the inside and washing the windows.  Chalk one up for the old man, and for some minor justice in a usually unjust world.
   Fall is beginning to show up here and there;  the leaves of the native pagoda dogwood, Cornus alternifolia, in the woods on 9th street are starting to turn their inimitable pinkish-red.
   And the big old northern Catalpa trees,  Catalpa speciosa,  on Hwy. 13 in Washburn are loaded with the pendulous, bean-like fruits we kids used to call Indian cigars.  We never tried to smoke them, like we did cattails.