I paid a visit to a Home Depot store the other day (during the last days of October), to purchase a few household maintenance items. Outside the store sat dozens of pumpkins waiting to be taken home and carved, or better yet, turned into pie. It reminded me of the Half Moon Bay pumpkin festival, where they seem to have the annual pumpkin convention, more than well attended, judging by the sea of orange. Inside the store however, no pumpkins were to bee seen — instead Christmas music (and bad music at that) blared over the speakers, as Christmas merchandise was piled high and wide. Come on folks, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. It’s really disheartening to see such corporate greed, taking all the joy out of the gradual seasonal changes and their accompanying holidays, not to mention the total lack of regard for Christmas and it’s true meaning of God’s son Jesus coming to earth for us. The employees who I talked to about it, seemed resigned to the unseasonal intrusion.

This morning, while I sat in the back under the “acorn tree”, as I playfully like to call it, my cat Calvin joined me, first coming down the stairs at a brisk pace, and then casually exploring the surroundings, including a curious sniff of my donut, that was acknowledged, but left alone (I did eat some bread with cheese and salami too — in case there are questions about nutrition). The jumpiness on his part in regards to falling acorns seems to have disappeared too.

I saw two people coming down the driveway that extends along the fence and then saw the man pick up an acorn cap, which he proceeded to bring near his mouth, cupping his hands and which he then blew into. A high whistling sound emerged. He grinned at me and said, “these acorn caps sure are practical if you get lost in the woods”. After they had left — monkey see — monkey do, I tried to emulate his feat with an acorn shell, alas to no avail. I never could whistle either, much to my consternation. Oh well — we all have different gifts and talents.

Have a blessed week