Grrrrrreetings! It’s a beautiful fall day here in Alabama.

When I woke up this morning it was actually freezing outside — yes, 32 chilly degrees. Exciting. This means winter really is approaching (I love fall and winter both, and look forward to them each and every year), and it also meant Egon got to try out his new fleece jacket on his brief walk this morning. Check it out:

Yes, that’s a miniature dachshund in a red jacket. I submit to you that this is a remarkably cute phenomenon. Please enjoy it. Egon, as some of you know, has alopecia (also sometimes called “dachshund pattern baldness”) which makes him lose his hair on the backs of his ears, his throat, chest, and undercarriage. All that, combined with his back being shaved from surgery, means the little guy most definitely needs a jacket on mornings like this. See? I AM BEING PRACTICAL. I’m not just some girl who likes to dress her dog up in clothes.

(Not just, anyway.)

So the little guy is doing much better. His walk is improving. He is generally much calmer in his crate, and is letting me get some sleep at night. The current situation is that his crate stays in the living/dining/kitchen area all day so he can be in the middle of things, and then I bring it into the bedroom at night. I’ve also got W. and his two dogs in there, and although our night-time pack usually involves all five of us piled up in the double bed (I… I know), we can at least achieve 80% dogpile completion, with the other 20% on the floor in his crate. This seems to be working for now, and (despite the crowding) the extra warmth is definitely appreciated now that we are waking up to frosty mornings like today.

In spite of my love for cold weather and my general fearlessness when it comes to running in the cold, I was not feeling up to a run right away when I woke up at 7:00 this morning, so I waited until the afternoon to go out. It was sunny and a bit warmer (capri tights and short-sleeves style temperatures) and it was just plain beautiful outside.

We are rocking that stage of fall where there are pleasantly crunchy leaves on the ground and still some rich color in the trees. I had a lovely five-mile loop around town and then tacked on an extra mile in my neighborhood at the end, just because it was so beautiful out and I am young and alive. Pretty nice day I’ve got going so far.

I’ll be honest, I am supposed to be grading essays today, but I just don’t feel like it. There’s always tomorrow right? It’s that time in the semester where procrastination seems, despite all logical evidence to the contrary, to be the right thing to do. I am just going to roll with it for the moment. In a little while I’m off for an early dinner of pizza and beer and then seeing my friend PSP perform in the community production of Hairspray.

So tell me: do you ever just take the day off and enjoy it for your own purposes? I know I’m not the only procrastinator ’round these parts. ‘Fess up.