Can't...lift...arms.

Today was gorgeous, just breathtakingly perfect, a Florida Autumn Day - upper 70s, not a cloud in the sky, cool breeze, open windows. The kind of day that makes tourists who only visit during this time of year go back to Ohio or wherever and start packing to move to Paradise, where they spend the next 20 years bitching about May, June, July, August, September and October.

It put me into a cleaning mode, and I tackled the big front windows that face north. Did you know that if you neglect a window that faces north long enough, and enough rain falls, actual lichens will begin to grow on the window frame? Ask me how I discovered this.

Because yes, it's true, I hadn't washed the windows in a very long time. I had thought about it many times, of course, every time I looked at them I was consumed by guilt about my lazy housekeeping ways, closely followed by ennui, closely followed by closing the blinds and pouring a glass of chardonnay. It helps to not be home much during daylight hours.

But today's low humidity and bright sunshine inspired me, and I spent a good hour cleaning those big windows, AFTER taking each of the dogs for a long, brisk walk. We have been walking in the evenings, but on the weekends we can make this a morning and evening thing. I walk them individually, so this morning I walked for a good hour - Murphy's pace is leisurely, but Dudley likes to go flat out. I have tried various methods to teach him leash manners and finally accepted that no training is effective until he has tired himself out and is sick of hanging himself by pulling so hard. After he has relaxed a bit we work on manners, like quit jerking my arm out of the socket. In every other way his walking manners are naturally perfect - he is politely curious about other dogs but keeps a distance, he watches the ducks without trying to go after them, once he figures out that he can get where he's going without strangling himself he'll be a pleasure to walk. On the plus side, right now walking him is a full body workout. Between that and washing the windows my arms feel like jelly right now. The windows are sparkling, the dogs are tired, and a tired dog is a good dog. Later we will repeat the process but on a shorter route. I'm going to hurt like hell tomorrow, I know it. But it was a lovely and productive day, and it's so nice to have the windows open after so many months of round the clock AC.

I have rejoined Audible. I had canceled my membership, but woman does not live by downloaded music alone. I'm currently listening to John Dean's Conservatives Without Conscience. It's a great book, especially in audio form. Many of the recent political books are so dry, even when the topic is interesting, I just can't get through them, but this is very, very readable/listenable, fascinating, and amusing in a crazy-making way. I hadn't read any of his other books but now I think I will. I have to confess to the Internets that I have a crush on John Dean that goes all the way back to his Watergate testimony, but that doesn't mean that I could get through a boring political treatise, no matter how I was fascinated by the author when I was a 14 year old political geek. I'm enjoying this so much I could hardly bear to turn off my iPod to go run errands after the windows were done, and I'll probably go back to it in a while, as I finish Cousin C's scarf.

And I must do my Internet Confession - I bought yarn. WEBS was having a sale on a yarn I wanted to try - Valley Yarns Amherst. And the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie pattern had caught my eye. And I've only bought yarn three or four times this year, vs. every six weeks whether I needed it or not, so I truly feel I've broken the Stashing Habit. I also truly feel that I need to get my ass needles in gear and start making/finishing sweaters. The big purple sweater has been languishing for weeks, and I will have to figure out where I left off in the front decreases because I am not smart enough to take notes. I should know myself better by now, and assume that any project is in danger of being abandoned at a moment's notice. The problem is the lack of pressure to finish a sweater - yes, it's cooler, but it's 75 degrees, not cool enough for wool yet. It's only cool after 6 months of 90. Sigh....