It's mostly cloudy, a bit humid and in the upper 70s heading towards 80 later this afternoon. There's only a slight chance for a brief shower. Tomorrow the cooler autumn air begins coming in, in earnest. I'm not ready for that. Periods of stronger breezes yesterday and today made more leaves fall. You can't even tell I raked the front yard two days ago. Oh well, I'll have to rake this weekend along with mowing and weed pulling. The drought report has all of South Jersey and part of Central Jersey in drought conditions but surprisingly doesn't list North Jersey. The top layer of soil here is very dry and stirs up as dust. The next opportunity for real rain isn't until at least next Tuesday.

With some of the birds migrating south there are fewer around to eat up all the spotted lanternflies so they're suddenly back again in the neighborhood. I'll have to make up a spray bottle of vinegar water to spray at them. Those things are such pests. The grackles, catbirds, and some of the woodpeckers are leaving. Soon the robins will go. The remaining year round birds are more quiet. A lot less chirping and bird song.

My sister who lives in town has a birthday coming up next month and she loves Halloween so I ordered one of the Halloween themed plush throw blankets from Kohl's for her birthday gift for in-store pickup later this afternoon. I'm curious to see what their early fall clothing lines have to offer. They have a big sale in progress with a 20% off your purchase coupon good through Sunday.

The cat is missing his cat buddy who went back to Virginia with my sister. He's been acting out a bit in frustration. Poor little guy. My sister applied for a job that's a combination telework with time at the office here in NJ and did a Zoom call interview at the beginning of the week. If she gets this job she'll move back to New Jersey and back into the house. They have to make their hiring decision by the end of the month so she should know if she got the job within the next week to week and a half. She likes living in Virginia but her current job has become rough since they're understaffed and everyone is expected to do the job of two or three people working long hours. She works eleven hours some days during especially busy periods. There's also an incompetence in upper management problem that never gets solved. She's in middle management and leads a small department. She's also applied for other jobs down there but hasn't interviewed down there yet. This job was the first she had applied for, but she's got her resume out to other places. It's all wait and see.