A Humdinger of a Book Crop

It was a glorious day for this week's farm market-yard sale run. The storms had passed, and the sky was blue and gold and as sunny as could be. It was so chilly last night, I had to close the windows in my apartment.

There weren't nearly as many yard sales out this week as there have been the past few weeks, but I did find some nice things. I picked up five records in pristine condition from one sale in Oaklyn - three Frank Sinatra albums from the 50s and early 60s and two Disney book-and-record sets. I haven't listened to the Disney sets yet, but Sinatra albums look and sound great.

The farm market was packed again, which wasn't a surprise, given the nice weather. Everyone is selling piles of pumpkins this year. All of them look gorgeous. This dry weather we've had has been great for pumpkins, unlike the constant rain that rotted them last year. I picked this year's big pumpkin for my living room and two smaller pumpkins for decorations.

(I don't carve pumpkins or put them outside where they can rot. I keep my pumpkins until after Thanksgiving or they go bad, whichever come first.)

After I left the farm market, I walked a few blocks to this year's Collingswood Book Festival. The Book Festival is a street fair for authors and book sellers that Collingswood holds every year. Unlike the May Fair and Craft Show, there's no craft booths here or booths that don't relate to books in some way. They did have a block off the main street as a separate section for children, including a puppet show, games, and appearances by kid lit characters like Where's Waldo and Clifford the Big Red Dog. (And for some reason, the mascot of the local minor-league baseball team, the Camden River Sharks.)

I was disappointed to see that while there were even more author booths this year, there weren't nearly as many used book sellers. I was still able to find Christmas presents for a friend and for my nephews.

I rode around after I left the Book Festival and looked for yard sales. I only found one more, on Eldridge Avenue in Collingswood. I picked up a stuffed Scooby Doo here for my Velma Halloween costume.

Headed home after that. I wanted to get my crock-pot beef stew together for dinner. I did that and put everything away, then decided it was too nice of a day to be inside. I rode over to Capitol Pizza for lunch. I ordered a slice of broccoli and mushroom pizza and a Coke Zero. After I left, I went for a short ride around the neighborhood.

Nice day or no nice day, I had other things to do besides run around on my bike. I unfortunately discovered while I was making the bed that Verizon had gone down AGAIN. It was really bad for a couple of weeks last month, then stopped doing it. Obviously, it's back to doing it again. I really wish I could upgrade to FIOS, but it costs too much.

I wanted to get some chores done before I called Verizon. I swept the porch, which needed it again after this week's storms. I took my rag rug outside to air, and I vacuumed.

I finally did call Verizon around 5. Tech support took me through reconnecting me online. They said they'd send an automatic message if they detected anything in the next 24 hours. Well, they'd better send one a lot sooner. My internet went down again about 20 minutes ago. I lost an hour's worth of writing time and got really upset. I don't know why they can't just increase the darn signal, and that's that. It's not like I'm far away from headquarters.

After I finished with them, I worked on some backing. I made low-fat Apple-Spice Cupcakes with white cake mix made with buttermilk and egg whites and baked rye bread from a British baking book I took out of the library. I had my beef stew for dinner while kicking off this year's Halloween festivities with Garfield's Halloween Adventure, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and another spooky Bowery Boys film, Master Minds.