Stepped on the scale in the bathroom this morning. Didn’t like what I saw. Gained 20 pounds since moving fulltime to the mountains nearly a year ago.

That’s on top of the excess weight already on the frame, pounds that add up year after year until the scale screams enough, the knees cry out for help, the ankles groan under the load and the hip goes on strike.

Rob Neukirch, owner of Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd, is in the midst of a public pissing contest with a delusional, opportunistic rabble-rouser who still holds on to the archaic belief that the confederacy is something to be proud of and promoting that sordid period of our history is, somehow, beneficial.

Meteorologically, winter doesn’t arrive for another two months.

Tell that to the thermometer that read 30 degrees this morning or the frozen leaves that crunched under my feet this morning. Even the dog, a mix of Chow and something else that is supposed to love cold weather, looked out the open door of the porch and then back up at me as if to say: “You expect me to go out on a cold morning like this?”

Seems we moved straight from summer into winter with only a brief stop at fall. Temepratures predicted to fall below freezing tonight and, yes, that was spitting snow that fell on our SUV as we drove back up Francy Gap Mountain from North Carolina this afternoon.

Did anyone get a chance to wave at fall as it breezed by?

Walking with the dog through the swirling leaves on a cool, crisp fall morning. Good time for thought and contemplation.

At this time a year ago, boxes surrounded us in our condo in Arlington. After meetings with a Realtor, our home for the previous 23 years would go on the market in a few days and she expected a quick sale, driven by a hot condo market where two-bedroom units smaller than ours commanded seven figure prices.