Weather Report: The heated seats in the Subaru sure feel good...

After all those household pictures Monday, Wendy, Keoni, Aidan and I on Tuesday went to have a different day since kids don't go to school on Election Day. We drove to Dr. Todd Addis'.

The drive took us along the scenic Perkioman Creek. There and the countryside are extraordinary.

Doc Addis is the veterinarian who sheltered the desperate Wendy and John when they reached Southeastern Pennsylvania in the pouring rain of Tropical Storm Andrea with all their animals in tow. Their scheduled B & B, stable and pasture establishment reneged on their reservation. Somehow they managed to call the number of a referral of another referral, etc., to find Doc's; then, find his place in the rain. Was it because of all the prayers the rest of us were sending up? Surely, some wonderfully serendipitous thing was responsible. What a find he and his wife are. A couple who makes you smile.

Doc and his dogs.

Hounds he has raised to hunt…yes, that kind…fox hunting.

Aidan with his favorites…ancient Dachsies...

Todd's wife Happy gave us a couple of her photos of a recent hunt they participated in.

Todd is in the pink jacket in the middle of the picture.

The back of their house at the well.

At last, I learned why PA roads go so close to the houses and barns. Todd told us that the milk cans were set out for pickup by the local creamery wagons so the roads developed as close as they could get to the source because full milk cans not only were heavy, but had to be kept cool in well water filled tanks necessitating accessibility. One of the older houses (there are many) along our frequent drives has big rocks piled by the corner of the front porch so the cars in the road don't bash the porch corner. And, the speed limit on these now paved roads is 45 MPH!!!

Thursday brought us to Aidan's cello day when the school orchestra that he joined does its practice.

Aidan, Wendy and Neighbor Jeffrey waiting at the school bus stop.

And it was Wendy's birthday. While John took Wendy out to dinner Aidan decorated the chocolate cake I'd made and iced earlier in the day. Yes, earlier in the day, Wendy got to lick the beaters. It's family tradition.

There was icing left over, so it was put to good use.

And…

Later, John brought Wendy back home for the cake and ice cream portion of their evening. Aidan is a great arbiter of portions seeing that all is divided equally. It must be all that math he does.

Headline: Condo Cat in PA Farm Fight

Mishap of the week: I let Toby in to see if he and Karma could at last get along. We won't try that any more, however. He was two feet into the kitchen and before I could close the outside door she attacked and the two of them flew out the door; Toby barely ahead. It ended up at the fence with enormous Toby behind the manure fork leaning there, yowling cat yowls and totally intimidated by this tiny, fierce bundle of claws and teeth. She managed to bite his foot. He will limp a few more days I believe.

Cat dilemma. It is getting pretty cold at night and the porch is especially cold as it turns out. Toby gets along great with the dogs but not with other cats so no go on the attempts to introduce him to the barn where he could easily cope with winter. Just not going to happen. He adopted the run-in shed in the pasture with one of his friends, Austin the mustang, as his refuge, but it leaves him completely vulnerable to predation being close to the woods.

Solution. Money always helps…I got an electric warmer to slide under his wire crate. Put all on top the big dog wire crate on the porch with lots of blanketing over and under; door open. He stayed the night in there and is still purring inside it this morning.

Keoni is filling out electronic forms for an audition he is preparing while he eats breakfast across the table from me. There are music stands in our bathroom we share with Aidan because it has the only blank white (sort of white) wall in the house where he can record the piece he is doing for the audition for NYO. He is recording his rendition of Prokofiev Concerto #2. When he gets the recording he likes best he'll submit that. In the meantime, we shower and brush teeth amid music sheets and stands. He wears his best shirt and tie while recording. They are draped over the stands in between "takes".