Here is a photo from a few days ago which I never shared. Shame on me. This would have been on a late afternoon walk, on a Monday.

I know generally where it is, but not the precise plant — that’d be taking a day’s notes a little too far, if you ask me. Somewhere nearby, though, on Saturday, another bush was showing off.

Hopefully some critter comes by and eats the berries soon. I don’t know that they’ll last much longer.

Anyone know what this is?

It is a clasping hinge for my china cabinet. My cabinet has four doors, and each door has two of these mounted inside. A little spearpoint is attached to the door and it slides through those spring-loaded rollers and that’s how the doors stay shut.

Anyway, the original piece broke last week. Looked around online. I found a lot of similar pieces that wouldn’t fit, and this guy which looked as if it would almost perfectly fit. When it arrived I was able to make it work without a problem. I’m assuming the patina on the clasp’s finish will catch up, eventually, not that anyone notices. My grandmother bought this china cabinet for my mother decades ago, and it has been handed down to me. This is the one piece I’ve had to replace on it. And I’d like to keep it that way.

We don’t always dine at the matching table, but when we do, it’s nice to think of the memories that come with that furniture. All the card games and board games and family meals and life lessons and good jokes that have come along where that china cabinet and table are a set piece. And now I’ve put a small little bit into it, too. No one will ever know, no one ever needs to. Sometimes it is more than enough that a thing has happened.

Which is an awful lot to say about plastic fatigue, an hour or so scrolling websites and a two-screw installation. But that’s how our dining room rolls.

We got our flu shots yesterday. Set up an appointment in the morning. Walked right in on time, a woman asked us the “Have you been sick?” questions for surely the 1,400th time that day, and waved us on to the next point. Someone pointed us to an open table. We walked up, a young woman scanned the ID cards, her colleague administered the shots. It was very easy.

There were no lollipops. I am writing a complaint email tomorrow. Just as soon as I have feeling in my upper bicep again.

Just kidding. Feels great. Even the bandage did a great job, showing off some quality 21st century adhesive staying power.

Also, should you get a flu shot? I asked that question of the university’s chief medical officer last year in the context of masks and social distancing. (Do you remember all that?)

That still seems like sound logic.

As to the masks, the county we are in voted last week to extent their indoor mask rule through November. NO one at Lowe’s today got that memo. It was much better at some of the other places I had to go. I feel as though I spent all day going from store to store, mostly because I did.

Look, here’s a picture I took outside of Kroger, at the end of the day, on my third venture out.

That’ll do. Catch ya here tomorrow for more Catober and some other fine stuff.