It's Monday ...

 ... and I'm back! My ten-year-old laptop died last week, so my blog posts came to an abrupt halt. I've been taking good care of it and backing things up often, but all technology has a finite lifetime (and it's often much shorter than 10 years). A new laptop isn't in the budget right now, but luckily I've managed to set up an old one of Ryan's for basic things like paying bills and blog posts. I've been keeping up with your posts but haven't been commenting because I hate doing that on my phone. I've missed all of you, and I'm glad to be back (until the next technology glitch). Many thanks to all the kind people that emailed and texted to check on things. 

Since it's November 2nd, this seems like a good time for a Right Now post.

Watching - The Queen's Gambit on Netflix. I stumbled upon this and found it fascinating. It's about a chess prodigy, how she came to play chess, and how her life unfolds as she deals with her abilities. Ryan tried to teach me to play chess when he was in elementary school (the cheat sheet he made for me because I couldn't remember how the pieces moved is above), but I am really terrible at the game. No chess knowledge is needed to watch the series although there are many quietly intriguing scenes of chess being played.

Reading - I found The Queen's Gambit so interesting that I had to read the book it was based on by Walter Tevis. The show follows the book fairly closely and I found it to be just as good. I may be reading more by this author.

Avoiding - The news, in all forms. Even though I'm trying to stay away from it, some still penetrates my embargo (my chatty neighbors and at the grocery store). I'm just hoping to survive this week (and possibly beyond) with some of my sanity intact.

Baking - Pumpkin Chip Muffins. The combination of pumpkin and chocolate chips sounded strange to me when my MiL first suggested I try these several decades ago. But she was right as she so often was about good baking, and now they are among my favorites. 

Ordering - I finally broke down and bought a fake Christmas tree. We didn't have one at all last year, and I found I really missed the ornaments. I can do without many Christmas decorations, but I really like decorating the tree and revisiting memories through the ornaments we've collected and made through the years. I ordered it online but haven't received it yet, so I hope it looks okay. 

Enjoying - Cooler temperatures (finally)! We had our first real frost in NJ on Friday night, but I'm not sure MD has gotten any yet. We may still get a handful of cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Wearing - Hitchhikers! I have a bunch of them and wear most of them, but I tend to reach for this one most often. It goes with everything and has lovely memories (buying the yarn at The Loopy Ewe six years ago) associated with it. 

Raking - Leaves. I've done this a couple of times so far, but they haven't even started collecting them in NJ, so the pile in front of our house is growing ever higher. We're supposed to have heavy rain and wind, so maybe all the leaves will be down and the next time I rake might be the last time this season. 

Feeling - Sad that it's been a year since I've seen Ryan. I was in Fort Collins a year ago to help him buy a new (to him) car after he totaled his in an accident. It feels like it was a decade or more ago. 

Hoping - That lots of things change so we can all feel safe traveling again and Ryan can sell his house in CO and move back east. 

Smiling - At this smiling alpaca. 

What's going on in your world right now?