What happened to autumn?

This has been the strangest year, weatherwise: Spring lasted into July, then we had about two weeks of summer, then autumn took over. But before the leaves could finish turning, it seems winter arrived!

Perhaps I wouldn't have thought about the weather so much if it weren't for our motorcycle. Rains seemed to come on the weekends for much of the year; and while we got in lots of one-day trips, we've not been able to take advantage of many of Cliff's three-day weekends. The last time we did, we ended up riding in rain for a short stretch. In fact, I believe we got rained on during every weekend-long trip.

This is Missouri, so I'm still holding onto the hope that we'll get just one three-day weekend with an all-clear for riding to Arkansas. There can be drastic changes in weather here in just a twenty-four hour period. It doesn't look promising for the upcoming weekend, though.

Evidently there will be no flu shots for us, unless Cliff can get one at work. Our doctor is out of the vaccine. I called to make Cliff's quarterly appointment (blood work, mainly, to make sure his liver isn't being damaged by the Lipitor). Since we're going anyhow, I'll see if they want to try giving me a different blood pressure prescription. I'm probably in for a lecture, since I stopped taking the one they gave me last time; it had me coughing and gagging all the time.

At Cliff's last dental appointment, the dental hygienist wanted him to come back in a month because there were some spots on the roof of his mouth, in a place where cancer sometimes starts. As a typical wife, I wanted to see this myself, so when we got home I shoved a flashlight in Cliff's face and told him to say "ah". Sure enough, there was a rash, almost like a measles rash. I didn't worry too much about it; after all, Cliff hasn't indulged in cigarettes or snuff for years.

He still had the rash after a month; the lady told him to come back in two weeks, and to stop using mouthwash... perhaps that was an irritant.

Cliff is very thorough when it comes to brushing his teeth; he loves his electric toothbrush, and he takes care to brush his tongue and the roof of his mouth while he's in there; he decided, on his own, to leave the roof of his mouth alone, just in case.

The rash is gone. He'll go to the dentist's office and let them have a look, but I have pronounced him just fine, thank you very much.