[ EDITORIAL NOTE: The reason for the weekly Sunday Election Issues post would seem to have passed into history. This week, however, it would be nice to post links to elderblogs with stories of the aftermath and followup to the election. If you have written one you would like to share with others, please get a link to me via email (click "Contact" in the upper left corner of this page) by end of day on Friday. ]

We watched and worried and held our breath for so many months that I’m surprised the collective exhale Tuesday night didn’t send Earth out of orbit. For now, I’ll leave the post mortems to the people who get paid for it and use today as a transition, a way to clear our minds of political detritus and get back to daily living.

Although I don’t have a lot of experience yet with Maine weather, it seems to have been a remarkably long and warm fall this year. A native agrees. He told me that by now there has usually been at least one big snowstorm, but so far I’ve counted only two nights during which the temperature fell below freezing and most days have been in the 40s and 50s F.

On a recent walk around the neighborhood, I tried to capture the astounding array of color in the local foliage. You don’t need to drive to the woods here for leaf peeping. There is a wide variety of trees which turn at differing rates and times.

Still Green

Light Green

Orange-y

Mixed Colors

Colorful Vine

Red and Pink

Red and Green

Bright Red

And just because he’s so damned cute, Ollie the cat.

Feel free to continue discussing the election if that's on your mind. Consider today an open thread.

[ At The Elder Storytelling Place today, a message from me. ]