Killing cold and lethal spider balls

The cold has sneaked in. That kind of cold where even the dog - the “I love-lying-in-the-snow-eating-icicles” dog - tries every trick in the book to get away with not staying outside too long when we let him out to pee. And every time you have to tell him “no dog. You did not pee. Go back out!” is just more time spent standing in a freezing doorway. Yay......

The trees are giving up after having held on to their leaves until November. It’s almost like the cold just have them drop everything over one night. Here’s my office view change over just a few days:

And as I was wheeling home yesterday (with my bike flash frozen in the second gear) I passed the spider ball tree by the golf course. It had dropped all its fruits all over the bike lane and sidewalk, so I stopped to collect some. And just as I was done, the tree aimed one last one directly at my bike, knocking off my front light by breaking it altogether. I am glad it did not aim for me! But here they are. The killing spider balls. Now tamed and without a chance to knock down on things and break them: