Feels like fall.

It smells like woodsmoke and the nights have been pretty cold. A lot of blackberries were green last week. Seems like fall is tripping all over itself to get a head start while summer is dragging its feet on the way out the door. Yesterday I tried to catch up at work and was able to get it pretty cleaned up. It was nice working on Labor Day because no one else was there. I had NPR on my computer but couldn't actually hear it since I was up in the shoe mez most of the time.

Today I worked on my Tacoma Fire application. There's a lot of stuff on there I have a hard time remembering: dates I worked as an office temp for Shared Strategy, the one time I was turned into a collection agency for an unpaid bill, my two car accident dates... hopefully I get a memory boost at some point because I'm taking the app pretty seriously because I want this job very badly. After I worked on that for an hour I spent the last 45 minutes shoveling dirt into the back of my truck. That sucker is earning her keep. She ferried 8 people from Deer Harbor to the other end of Orcas Island after Rob was boarded by the Coast Guard and had his voyage "terminated." Now she's helping us get rid of that miserable dirt pile in the front of the house. And, later this week, I'm going to pick up that a boxspring from Rachel's house.

We did have one mini adventure coming back late from Orcas. We tried to switch to the second fuel tank when we ran low on the first and went to two closed diesel stations. Apparently there's no 2nd tank or it's not hooked up to the switch because the truck died after one block (the rest of the fuel in the line ran through). It was 1am and we had to coast into a 76 station (with no diesel) and crank the engine to no avail. Each damned clerk told us the Chevron had diesel (when you could clearly read the sign that had diesel no where on it). So we got advice from beer-breathed whiskered creeps and finally were able to crank that engine into life on the dregs of the first tank. It was enough to creep down the freeway to the next exit, which gloriously had a diesel station.

Now, I'm headed to Mom's with the dirt.

Also, 10 days list-free so far. Only 355 more to go. It hasn't been the easiest. Especially because today is the beginning of the month (ah, a clean slate) and it feels like fall (ah, a new season). But, I was thinking recently, life seems to take care of itself. Even though I try to micromanage the crap out of it, the best things of the summer haven't been "listed." I finally got a tattoo with Alec, Maddie is in a great lease (and hopefully will be bought by the end of winter), we have our five chickens and the coop is finally done (for the most part), we have a garden falling over itself with veggies, we had a mini vacation, I tested for my top two departments (and am training for the big hump for Tacoma), and I bought a truck I'm in love with. I didn't even notice all this happening. I need to remember where I'm at in my life. I just turned 25 and I live in a rad house with more creatures that necessary with someone I love very much. I have a good job (for the time being) and am working diligently on attaining my longtime goal of being a big city firefighter. I love the fall and am excited for the smells, cooking, picking, planting, harvesting, baking, reading, cleaning, digging that takes up the bulk of fall in the Northwest.