Time: bin Laden ill, perhaps dead

John 14:6

I hope you got done what you needed to: a little sunbathing, maybe a nice cruise down the creek in your old inner tube. Did you get a couple of good sun-ripened tomatoes? I did. But I’ll miss the long days. And sleeping with a big old fan rustling the sheets on my bed all night. I sleep good that way. I got in some good walks in warm morning air, took some swims, went out in the evening to watch the jets go by.

I hear the summer is sending a vicious Santa Ana from the four corners, just to remember him by. Not good news for the firefighters on the Day Fire, and probably more ash for my little town.

But as much as I love the summer, with its long daze, Autumn is my favorite time of year. I welcome its contemplation, the slow turning to a quieter, interior landscape. Not necessarily as beautiful, but usually serene. Once we get past this daunting time of equal days and nights, that is. All this balance is too static for me, like something teetering there that shouldn’t be.

Anyhoo, the frost is on the pumpkin soon enough. I’ll try to hit the pool a few more times. It’s good for what ails ya, you know. And then, the long day’s journey into … aw, what do I know about it.

Here’s something scribbled in my journal today.

Sometimes reading poetry
I put the book aside and sigh.
My work will never be as good
and then I’ll die.

Happy equinox y’all!

I use Google Calendar now. I used Yahoo for many years, but – God bless their little hearts -they’re not keeping up. This is a screenshot from a reminder e-mail, such as I get for most of my personal events. I get a couple of these day, to keep me on schedule. (HOA is Homeowners Association.)

See the colorful Google logo? It was broken for a couple of days. Just a little red X, you know, meaning the link was broken to that embedded image. So I sent an e-mail to Google support, got a prompt response … and in the next reminder I received, it was fixed.

Somehow, that just surprised the heck out of me. I’ve reported broken stuff on the ‘net many times. But that Google would get my message – and those of others who undoubtedly reported it – and someone there would simply fix it, promptly, is strange. And it makes me feel hopeful for the seemingly inevitable de-evolution of our kind.

good goin’ google. 

This is a foul mannered day. Mom & Dad are out a while, so I’m hanging with Happy, to watch in case the day takes a toll on her health.  

A fire – the Day Fire – is burning over near Castaic and Fillmore. 125 square miles devoured so far; it’s been burning for nearly two weeks, since Labor Day. Well, the winds shifted last night, and blew smoke and ash all over Carpinteria.  Its overcast too, and when the sun finds a thin place in the clouds to let a little light seep through, it filters through this acrid crap.   The light is mostly gray, with a tint of sickly orange brown. And just in the last few hours, we’ve been spared the scent of the burning brush. Reminiscent of a campfire, but not in a good way.

The only upside is that it’s not too hot to be indoors with all the windows closed against fallout. Behind these double-paned windows, it’s quiet. Happy is taking a nap.

I guess the summer has been murdered in old age, cremated and sprinkled on the land, unloved and unmourned. So it goes. I’m looking forward to autumn and winter, when the sky will be clear and crisp.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.

— George Bernard Shaw

"It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous." 

– Robert Benchley

 
I’m so glad I don’t have that problem.

Robert Jensen:

“Five years later, one thing is clear: The antiwar voices were right. We saw what was coming, not because we were so smart but because it was so obvious.”

Here’s a great wiki post on How to Dissuade Yourself from becoming a Blogger.

If you have come to this blog without coercion, and especially if you are considering blogging, this information is vital. And it’s absolutely true.

Write on a regular basis in a text editor instead. If that doesn’t satisfy your urge, and you feel that you must post your blog online, then you might just be craving attention and validation–which you’ll never truly find in a blog. If you give up on your Wordpad journal after about three days, you’ll do the same with a blog that just takes up server space.

Of course there are two sides to every apple, mon frere. It’s true that blogging comes to spare pickins in terms of external validation, and that’s it generally amounts to honking your horn while passing through a tunnel. And it’s an excellent way of sowing the seeds of future embarrassment.

Perhaps the worst thing about blogging is the process. Write, then publish. That’s not the way quality is produced. The better process is: ideate, research, ponder, take a walk, make notes, pet the dog, start a draft, eat lunch, start over, write several more drafts, give up with something that looks mostly finished, think about shaving, share it with people, re-write it, and stare at it while thinking about publication.

On the other hand, it’s like what Douglas Adams said about Earth in Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy: “Mostly Harmless.” It’s a hobby. Flying in airplanes started out as a hobby of – inter alia – two bicycle-repairing brothers. And I think online publishing, once past this awkward adolescence, will grow into something valid. After all, the evening news and the daily paper are cranky, arthritic old men now. Something’s coming along to replace them; and it too is on its way to memory.