That horrid wind died down today, thank doG. That was one basset ear-blowing gale that blasted through the valley yesterday. I spent most of the day wiping debris from my eyes. No bike ride, either. Glad there wasn't a leaf rustling today. The good part about the first October blow is that it knocks down the neighbor's magnificent walnuts from the tree for gathering. They are two inches in length. Not like the tiny ones you buy in the grocery store. This year the squirrels have beat us to most of them, though. They hollow them right out with their little buck teeth, leaving a round hole in the shell. I wonder if that's a sign of a bad winter? The squirrels have gotten downright vicious in the Bay Area. They've been attacking people because their food source was cut off when the garbage can lids were squirrel proofed. Film footage on TV showed one pillaging a baby's stroller tray. To keep hysterial mothers happy, officials have set traps to kill those nasty killer squirrels. Did anyone think of feeding them peanuts or some other kind of food so they wouldn't be so ravenous? Seems like there is a simpler, less cruel solution here.

I finished book 3 in my mystery series today and it feels so goooooood! Now on to a nonfiction book proposal and then I can get back to the fourth book I started some time ago. Keeping occupied with writing projects takes my mind off of Daisy, who I still miss terribly. She visited me in my dreams night before last for the first time since she died. It seemed so real. I could feel her soft fur beneath my hand as I petted her. She was munching her biscuits in her bed in front of the fireplace, making a crumbly, drooly mess like she used to. Then she was beside my bed, nudging my hand with her cold wet nose like she did each morning. As my friend said, whatever the reason for her visit in my dreams it had to do with love.