A month of October - October 1st - let it begin.

[byslantedlight]

Ah, October - no longer just a day of spookiness, it's started a month early with me clearing away two dead bodies. One of which was eviscerated. Actually it was just the viscera... On the bright side, they were the bodies of neither me nor my roommate, so all is still well really - the first body was the non-body (the viscera - well, at least some of it. I didn't check) that one of the cats had brought in and kindly placed exactly where I sit at the table. Of course I didn't actually look under the table as I blinked sleepily around whilst turning on my laptop, so I'm just really hoping I didn't stand in it. With my soft-soled sock-slippers. I've put them in the laundry basket, just in case... The second body was much fresher and - thank Cthulu and all the wiggly gods - still intact. And in the mouth of a cat, who knew I was gonna chase it away the second it saw me. Which I did, and then disposed of the second body. So - October!

And I have decided that I am going to cheer the fuck up! I missed autumn last year, and I was so looking forward to it this year, and it's all gone hideously wrong, but that doesn't mean that I can't still enjoy some parts of it, so I'm going to. And I'm going to post about it. *g* So it'll be a bit like the 100 Days of Happy but with added October. *g*

There are many cool things. I'm still reading for the RIP Reading Challenge, and eldritchhobbit is posting her annual Halloween countdown, and the leaves are turning! I may even be able to convince roommate to turn the central heating on eventually... *g* I'm off back east in a week or so for a hospital appointment, and so I'm going to spend an extra night in London, and go and see all the poppies at the Tower. I've finally, after ages found someone and booked a violin/fiddle lesson. Eeeep! I don't have a violin, and maybe I can't do it, but... it'll be fun trying again.

Actually, speaking of The Halloween Countdown, I love the poem that Eldritchhobbit chose for today too, and I hope she won't mind if I repost it here:

"The Ghost of a Flower" by Anonymous

"You're what?" asked the common or garden spook
Of a stranger at midnight's hour.
And the shade replied with a graceful glide,
"Why, I'm the ghost of a flower."

"The ghost of a flower?" said the old-time spook;
"That's a brand-new one on me;
I never supposed a flower had a ghost,
Though I've seen the shade of a tree."

Isn't that lovely?!

I went out today too, cos I had a doctor's appointment (nice GP actually, wish I could keep her) and so I thought I'd have lunch. I passed the Good Earth shop/restaurant/all-sorts on the way up from a completely new carpark, so I went and had a wander around the bookshops. I've had less luck in the Waterstones here actually, so I popped into WH Smith first, just to see, and actually found two RIP-ish books that I fancied, so yeay. And then I went back and had African stew, sitting in a bit of a room all to myself, which was part of the main room. What's so October about that, you ask? Well:
I liked my little cubby. And the stew was delish. But - it's all a bit philosophical. Was it worse when people actually hung the heads of dead things on the wall? Or is it weird that we now hang things on our wall that remind us of dead things?

Oh, and that reminds me! I was stopped on the way home at the traffic lights, just around the corner from these ones... which are all halloween-y. Those leaves are just hovering around that light - see! *g* Anyway, there I was, all good - and something landed on the roof of my car. A big sort of thump! so that I looked up, and then thought but there's nowhere for a cat to jump from! and then I thought it would've been a big cat... and then the light's changed, and since no one around me seemed to be reacting or anything I drove off, and nothing fell off, and I went slowly, but all was good, and no one was looking twice at my car, and I got home, and of course there was nothing there. But I swear - something landed on the roof of my car. There's nothing else that noise could have been! And yet... eep!

So it's been a fitting beginning, really... *g* Right - off to read something October. *g*

Comments

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

It's clear to me that those cats like you - why else would they target you so precisely for their "offerings" *g*.

...and something landed on the roof of my car...

And word must be spreading - although from a more pragmatic pov cats can be here-and-gone awfully quickly, and most drivers are dozy sods, especially at lights!

I never did find out what that big thump was on the underside of my car when we were out west - I got a new light cover, the car's been serviced a couple of times, and nothing's turned up...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - well, they know that I sometimes give them food... *g*

It's funny how things make noises sometimes, isn't it. I assume it's mostly stuff settling with a change in temperature or something, but still..! I don't think it can really have been a cat at the traffic lights, cos there was nowhere at all for it to have dropped from - not even a passing truck or minibus! So it must really have been something to do with stretching or shrinking metal, but... it sounded just as though something alive had dropped onto the car! And I swear the sound came from the roof too, rather than anywhere else - and again there was nothing else around me anyway! It was kind of a fun thing for an it's-October theme, anyway! *g*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of 100 Days of Happy with added October! :) And thanks for the shout-out, too!

I got a little shiver at your description of something landing on your car. AUGH! Very creepy. Unsolved mysteries like that really make you wonder what's going on.

Autumn-y hugs to you!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm tired of my own moaning about my move having gone wrong, and the start of October seemed like a good time to count blessings instead! *g*

It was a bit creepy when I realised that there was absolutely nothing coming down from the roof of my car - if something had landed there, it was staying there! But then no one in other cars or on the pavement was giving my car a second glance, and there was absolutely no other sign that there was anything there... it really was odd! It took me a whilst to realise that nothing else was going to happen - or seemed to have happened, except for the noise! Shiver-y indeed!

And autumn-y hugs back! *g*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

That's a mystery! Could a bird have landed perhaps then taken off again? Not a sparrow but something a bit heftier? Just a thought.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It really is! Oddly enough I didn't think of a bird, because if it had been, it seems that I ought to have seen it flying off, or heard the scrape of claws or something as it took off again - but there was nothing. It would have had to be seriously hefty too, for the size of the thump - it could maybe have been something the size of an Aussie magpie (but the ones here are smaller) or a crow - but really nothing flew off, and I looked up and around really sharpish when it happened! There were no signs on the roof that anything had been there when I stopped and looked either - not even drops of water or a scrape of dust, or anything. Total mystery!

[clarentine]

Given the size of the cobwebs holding onto those leaves at the light, I'm thinking spider myself....

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh! Giant invisible spider! I've got so used to seeing the webs there, and loving the way they make the leaves float, that I never even thought about what must be making them! Mind you, if a giant invisible spider did hitch a ride back to my home, I wish it'd repay the favour by eating up some of the midges around here... then again, maybe that's why I've not seen one of the cats yet this morning.... eep! *g*

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

Happy October (though I'm astonished at how fast it has arrived)!

Those cats probably want to move along with you! They know a good thing/person, when they see one! ;)

And how strange, with the unseen something landing on your roof! Maybe it was all our combined good wishes for the home search, descending all together? *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was all our combined good wishes for the home search, descending all together?
Oh, that is my favourite of all the theories! *vbg*

Happy October to you too!