It's cloudy, humid and in the 70s. Today was the yard waste pickup day so out went that old shrub that died which I cut apart on Monday. We moved into this house when I was a year old. My oldest sister was in her early teens. If she were still alive she would have turned 70 next month. The remaining shrubs that were already established here when we moved in are likely older than my two middle sisters but aren't quite 70 years old yet. They're not just prickly shrubs. There are several other kinds of shrubbery as well. Unfortunately one shrub that's an evergreen with small waxy teardrop shaped leaves which grows dark berries late fall-early winter that the mockingbirds love to eat is on the sickly side. It has offspring nearby in the front yard that are doing okay though.

My sister teleworked into the early afternoon then we did some shopping and got an early fast food dinner. She decided to take a nap and will leave after rush hour traffic winds down. With the lack of rain some of the trees are dropping leaves early so I spent time raking in the front yard and have a garbage pail full. My ankles started protesting so I called it a day with the yardwork. I have to be careful not to overdo. Besides having tears in the Achilles tendons in both ankles I have bone marrow edema in the worse ankle. I hate arthritis.

My other sister will be stopping by tonight to pick up her suitcase. She's going to an annual conference on wildlife care for naturalists and wildlife management people. This is held at one of the universities in another part of the state and participants stay in the school dorms. While she's a professional artist she's also involved in wildlife and nature preservation and education with our local Audubon Society chapter.

So far no rain today. Hopefully we'll get some tonight and tomorrow. Parts of South Jersey are back to minor drought. The official drought report for the week will be released tomorrow and the weather forecasters will let us know what the updated status is here. We spent much of the summer in mild to moderate drought until the flooding rains a month ago. I hope we're not headed for another drought situation again.