The wise among us suspected I'd be back about the tomato, soon, didn't you? Yes, the tomato's powdery mildew came back. So I finally took the advise y'all had so generously given, and treated the leaves with baking soda (and a little bit of dish soap), but awkwardly, by combining dry baking soda with a little soap and water on my fingers and very gently mashing it on top of any powdery mildew outbreaks. I fed the tomato right afterwards. That was two days ago. The tomato looks more vigorous now--and mildew free so far, now that all the baking soda has fallen off.
The frost two nights ago was pretty hard. The unpatterned frost on the vehicle windshield was thick. There was white ice outlining each piece of the longer grass.
Looking at the grass, I realized a bunch of it was cropped. If you leave the grass too long this time of year, the deer will come eat it. Who needs goats?
The rose is still doing fine outside, even through the frost. The white petals are beautiful. Its scent is faint but intoxicating.
Having a warm fire when it's cold out is luxurious--and having to open the windows and let the cold night air in when it gets too hot feels exciting--and sinful.

So--Grocery Store Run News:
The Christmas magazines are out. This early always annoyed me, but now I'm wondering: is it because so many people work and they need more time to get ready?
Everyone felt cold after the frost (50-low 60's during the day before; good frost over night; high 30's-low 40's the next morning.) We'll be laughing at this weather in a few weeks. The transition is hard, especially with almost no summer weather this year. But yesterday, it was 70, with the blue sky really close and the red and yellow and orange leaves flat against it. Everyone wanted to walk, or stop and say, "What beautiful weather!"
Last spring, I bought my last 100 gals. of fuel at 389; about 2 weeks ago, I bought another 100 gals for the hot water this winter at 349. (I wish I'd done the solar water heater conversion, but I couldn't afford the upfront costs.) I jumped too soon, but I'd run out (and tired of the less money but ultimately much more expensive keeping-it-going tricks.)
Two days ago two of the people who work at the grocery store bought their oil: at 322 and 316. One of their friends had locked in at and prepaid at 474.
My oil company, a small, family-owned business from the next town, wasn't doing deliveries the day I ordered--but they came out because I did order. Their business has really slowed down because so many are going back to wood for all their heating--like me. The main owner has great theories about the economic slow-down; he thinks it's going to destroy small businesses like his. They can't absorb the costs, running the oil truck is expensive (7 mpg) and the fluctuation in the price is not something they can handle or store a lot of fuel to ride out. He was hoping to pass his business down to his kids--not that they are interested right now, being in their early years at college, which he didn't go to, having started working at that age. He figures they'll come back to the home heating oil business--if it still exists. They are a nice family; I hope it works out for them. The other thing is that families like theirs help keep the price down here: there are lots of little independent oil companies and they compete to lower their prices. Didn't we used to call that the free market working?
Now it's two weeks since my delivery, and I'm seeing all the small oil company trucks again, more houses are getting deliveries with the lower oil prices--around 279 this morning. Driving has increased, a little, with the big drop in gas prices to 2.89. Not as much driving as you might expect, but I think people are hunkering down for a long cold winter and saving money for that. Although food prices were supposedly higher because of transportation costs, food prices haven't dropped. The turkey bologna in the store went from 1.29 to 3.59 this week. Are Thanksgiving turkeys already hitting the market?