Quick note

System freezes up if I stay on one page more than a couple of minutes, and Juno crashes when I use the client, so I must be brief.

The stiff breezes tonight are making the dried oak leaves skitter along the pavement, and the acorns clatter down from the trees at a furious pace. It sounds like a hailstorm outside. This is the first good wind of autumn, and will make the first big mess to clean up. Lots of raking tomorrow, and rising temperatures, too. The air is electric, and, as always in such weather, I am getting a bit hyper. Wow, too much drama for me this time of year. Heh.

Brown Days Arrive

After the wind, the streets are covered in brown pine needles and oak leaves. The cars run over them, and the pulverized dust is blown to the sides of the road, making a soft golden path which crunches slightly under the footsteps of passersby. Already, where oaks overhang the streets, there were paths of crushed acorns, and the weeds in open fields and vacant lots have been dessicated to a shaggy carpet of beige. There is a restful quality to this browning of the landscape, as though everything were settling down for a nap. The days of early fall are very pleasant days.

Toe

My left big toe hurts.

I wonder if it could be gout?

I remember cartoons about guys with gout.

Just the drawings, not the captions.

There was always some old rich guy sitting in a big chair, swollen foot resting on a hassock, big toe bandaged.

Some starving young artist or writer or other supplicant begging him for money.

We've come a long way if someone with an income as low as mine can develop gout.

Well, maybe it is only out of joint.

Maybe I need a toe chiropractor.

Damn toe.