it's hard getting out of bed when it's this cold in the house. better just to stay under the warm covers the whole day. all that wetness from yesterday was all but a distant memory this morning, you hardly would've guessed it was actually snowing last night. cleber called me. he'd been following the weather and tomorrow looks warm enough for him to come back to the house and finish painting.

i went to the cafe where i had some noodles for lunch even though i had a bowl of cereal before leaving the house. i washed the motorcycle with some warm soapy water in belmont, particularly the unprotected bottom parts that were exposed to the rainwater and dirt. i'm trying to keep the bike in good condition so it'll have a better resale value should i decide to sell it next season. maybe later in the week i'll take it out and get some pretty shots of it with the autumn foliage.

the other big project i had going on was preparing the garden. fall is the time to dig out tender perennials (i did that already last week with the caladiums) and plant bulbs for next season. today i dug out the gladiolas. they're not as tender as the caladiums, but a hard freeze will kill them (they prefer a 40°F storage temperature, while the caladiums need to be kept at 60°F and above). when i planted them back in june, each corm was no bigger than the size of a nickel. they seemed to have thrived in the garden because when i dug them back out, the new corms were as large as garlic cloves, with many additional cormels. unfortunately gladiolas are not my favorite perennials. they don't bloom profusely, they're delicate enough that they require staking, and they need additional autumn care otherwise they die during the winter. maybe i can grow them in pots next year but they won't be as healthy compared to the ones grown directly in the ground.

my father did some pruning on the western side of the house - trimming the lilacs, quince, roses, and honeysuckles. there's still the raspberries that need to be pruned back but i need to do some research on the best approach. along the border by the fence we discovered some hickory saplings. the leaves had a nice fragrance when we crushed them, not sure if that's a characteristic of hickory trees.

hailey ran away again because my father left the backyard fence open when he came home. he went looking for her in the car, while my sister wandered around the neighborhood with the dog leash. minutes later she brought hailey back. my father was checking hailey for signs of injuries, because he saw her running headfirst into a car before running away again. the driver must not have even known what hit it but will be baffled by the dent the size of a dog's head. hailey seemed fine, no indications of broken bones. later my sister saw she had a small gash wound on her hind leg, but hailey didn't seem bothered by it. how do you train a dog to not run away? hailey is part hound and i wonder if it's greyhound, because she loves to run.

there's no joy in riding a motorcycle on a cold autumn night. the windshield helps a lot, but my hands and ankles where a bit chilly. it was a clear moonless night, so all the stars were out, and plumes of condensing breath escaped my mouth every time i came to a traffic stop. my riding days are numbered. the first serious snowstorm of the season and it's all over.

back at home, i took a shower. i tried out the pears soap. it has a very unique fragrance, kind of what i'd imagine victorian people to smell like. it's a lot darker than i thought, but more translucent than the dial glycerin soap i'd been using. the shape is also special, not curved and form-fitting like a usual bar of soap, but oval and puck-like. it also doesn't lather up as much as traditional soap. it doesn't feel greasy, and in fact, it feels the exact opposite, like the feeling you get when you wash your hands with detergent, that squeaky cleanliness (could be because of the rosin content).