BRRR ...turnin' C-c-c-c-cold

It's Wednesday night and it will be even colder than last night. Down on Alpha Martha, temperatures dropped to around 25 degrees. My older thermometer said 20. I am not so sure I believe it got that cold, but 25 seems right for here. Leaves were dropping like snow from some trees on the morning walk. This evening at 8:30 PM, the temperature had dropped to 38 degrees. BRRR! I guess I won't get to see pretty leaves on MY Sugar Maple, but I did find the Grand Daddy tree. It was down by the creek, Mechanics Creek to be exact. I have not seen one that big down here, but the wonderful red orange color gave it away. I verified what it was by taking a picture of it in zoom mode on my new digital camera.
Wow! You can get 8 megapixels pretty inexpensively now. I chose the i830 Polaroid as it has the most reasonable lag time. It's better than most, and for under $100, though the 1 gigabyte SD card for another $18 took care of that. I got another set of NiMh batteries to go with it. It does fairly well, as I took a picture of Jolene, and had an 8 X10 made and the picture was superb. I was actually blown away by the picture quality, and of course Jolene is a beauty herself! I don't know if I have mentioned her before, but she's a 45 pound mix of German Shepherd and most likely Sheltie. She was badly abused as a pup and also missed a good bit of puppy socialization time. She was terrified of men, and was so bad, that though Pets INC normally doesn't put down healthy dogs, she came close until I started working with her. When I moved out here in January I took her, as no one wanted her. I worked her hard to get better socialized. EVERY man we came across had to pet her, and we made many trips to Tractor Supply Company. That is one of her favorite places, and the staff there saw the improvement in her. She will never get over the puppy trauma, but she's a world better than before, and of course I'm the Alpha Daddy. I have to be the calm assertive leader, if only for her. No laughing from the Peanut Gallery, either! You could say I'm the “Jolene Whisperer” ! I think I am repeating myself a bit, I also took her to the radio station for a couple months, as when I brought her to Alpha Martha she showed some signs of separation anxiety. So after a 5 months I left her home for short times. Now when I go to WKDK to work there is no problem. Of course a radio is left on WKDK and she hears familiar voices, Heather Jimmy and me. Works for me, and she often is in a regal pose on “her sofa” when I come in.
On my walks, I see and smell the smells of fall. Because of the dryness, the colors this year are very muted. So far we have had just under 18 inches of rain this year. 50 inches is normal. It doesn't look promising for a break in the drought any time soon, either.
I am afraid the last of the 5 kitties have departed. The last one actually was Jolene's friend, and more social to her. I'm guessing the age about 5 months. A pretty, and talkative grey and white one. I haven't seen the little devil for about 2 days and that's abnormal for that one. I had named the cat Pat, for either Patrick or Patricia. I had just gotten Pat social enough to me to maybe pick the kitten up and carry Pat to the house. I am afraid a coyote may have had a snack, and Pat wouild have thought the coyote was a friend to play with.