Fall weather sure to prompt repair chores, clean-up

Fall is here. That glorious time of harvest and celebration when the pungent aromas of freshly-squeezed apple cider and burning leaves mix unexpectedly in the air. Boxes of ripening fruit sit on countertops awaiting canning jars or pie shells as household maintenance chores maddeningly continue to pile up around them.

It's a busy time for young and old alike as the students among us settle down for another long school year while the older set struggles to remember half of the things learned in the classrooms of youth.

Voter pamphlets pile up on every flat surface and the newspaper's editorial page is filled with weighty issues such as nationalized health care or gun and ammunition control.

And, yes, Kim reminds me that it is time once again to clean out the garage, that storehouse of unused items that we know will be just perfect sitting in someone else's den or parlor.

Garage sale signs sprout from the yards of our neighbors like mushrooms this time of year, so we feel compelled to join them.

Besides, if we don't clear out a corner or two of the garage, where in the world are we ever going to put all of the treasures that Kim and I are sure to buy this winter?

Shortly after we combined households, Kim and I reached the simultaneous conclusion that we just have too much stuff.

Try packing 10 pounds of potatoes into a five-pound sack and you will have a good idea of the dimensions of our dilemma.

In fact, our editorial cartoonist Barry McWilliams of Montana has an uncanny knack for capturing the look and feel of our garage in the drawing selected for this week. I'm not sure how he does it because other than trading a few emails with McWilliams, I don't ever remember showing him around our place here in Anderson.

Oh, well, I'm getting side-tracked from the chore at hand, that is, cleaning out the garage.

Come to think of it, my home office needs some work as well. Maybe if I move this stack of papers from on top of the printer to a new spot where I've piled several dozen books I want to read - ahhh, much better. Now, in fact, I can see the branches through the window that Kim thinks we should trim before winter wind storms start lashing them against the paint and siding.

What's that? Another touchdown? How am I ever going to find the time to finish up that September newsletter that Mike Lynch, the Anderson Rotary Club president, wants.

Too late, just checked the calendar and it's already Oct. 4. With a few strokes on the keyboard, the Rotary newsletter magically transforms into the October newsletter.

Thank the creator for DVRs. I can still watch that touchdown replay while the coaches and officials sort out the kick-off penalty, if only I can locate the remote.