autumn leaves and killer bees

overnight the trees have changed. all the mountainsides are riots of color--green, purple, red, yellow, and neon orange. it's gorgeous and inspiring and oh so different from the flat neverending green of florida. if i was a landscape painter i'd be inspired to capture it, but landscapes and still-life paintings are two subjects i avoid using.

tomorrow we might go up the blue ridge parkway to get a better look at this buffet of colors. should be fun.

last night i was sitting outside on the steps, talking to my dad and cynde, when zoey, my dad's dog, came barrelling down the side of the hill. i didn't pay much attention to her--she's usually sort of all over the place exploring and getting dirty, until i heard the weird humming noise. i stopped my dad mid-sentence and asked him if he heard that noise. what noise? he asked. that humming noise, i said. it sounds like angry bees or something. then cynde pointed behind me, and when i turned around there, right behind me, was a swarm of angry hornets buzzing around the porchlight. i jumped up and bolted, and stood next to cynde, i admit a little terrified. bees die when they sting you, but hornets can sting you again and again and there were LOTS of them. then i looked at the other porchlight and it too was swarming. the one upstairs was worse--you could hardly see the light for the hornets. i freaked out a little, cause the doors to the house were all open and the kids react badly to mosquito bites. i didn't want to find out what would happen to them if they got stung by a hornet, or worse, hornetS. they were stinging zoey, and as my dad went to shut the downstairs door one stung him right on the nose. it was sort of funny in a way, especially with the stream of interestingly juxtaposed swear words that came pouring out of his mouth. i ran inside, and sure enough they'd gotten in the house. my dad started spraying them and they started dying, but still, even this morning there were dead or dying ones all over the house this morning. i have no idea where the nest is, but i'm sure i don't want to find out. i'm just glad it happened at night so the porch lights could distract them. if it had been during the day, as art pointed out, we would have probably all got stung to death. or at least to the point where we might wish for death.

ah, the great outdoors...