Meanwhile... back in what passes for reality these days...

Okay, I had told myself that I would show restraint. I've tried, I've really tried. I don't want to spend my time preaching to the converted. But I just can't ignore the current political "news" any longer. There have been several fun images worth re-posting which have appeared since the 'Great Debate' between President Obama and President-wanna-be Mitt Romney. Romney came off as a preppy on speed, obnoxiously interrupting and speaking over both the debate moderator and the President of the United States. There is such a thing as respect, Mitt. It might help if you learned to show it, even if you can't quite connect with the concept of humility which goes along with it.   For his part, Obama seemed tired, first exhibiting the kind of patience a parent shows a child who has just discovered that there is injustice in the world, then tolerance, then peevishness, and only occasionally delving into momentary flashes of frustration. Romney constantly noted that the President was misinformed about his (Romney's) proposals, most of which were stunningly different than those on which he has been running since the start of the primaries and which are contained the Republican Party Platform he helped create. The President let him get away with it. Jeezus, Obama - when the hell are you going to stand up and tell these people off? It's time you called the Republicans on their lies and noted that it is they who have refused to work with you and your administration. You are letting them get away with re-writing your administration's history and spreading it as vote-for-Republican-propaganda-manure. Man up and fight back, damn-it.

As I have no money for cable and there is no broadcast television signal where I live, I had to rely on the internet to watch the debate. Every web-stream I found, including the one on YouTube, was provided by a partnership of Yahoo and ABC News. The anchoring was annoying, but no where near as bad as the constant popups and superimposed tweets of such sophisticated thoughts as "Go get im". The entire internet, once a wonderful resource, has become a constant corporate commercial of banners, roll over signs, and superimposed messages (some can't even be turned off - the only way to get rid of them to read a news story is to reload the page) supplemented by expressions of thought from people who are clearly not used to the process. Don't expect to be able to read much of the news on the internet without paid subscriptions any longer - reportage on the internet has gone heavily into web-streams of talking heads with annoying graphics and music - some as short as 20 or 30 seconds - in place of text. Aside from online sales, it is as though there were a prejudice against  people who can read. Perhaps that is why Romney felt bold enough to note that he would pull all funding from the Public Broadcasting Service (which gets about one one-hundredth of the US budget, less than the Pentagon spends in one day).

Okay, I guess I feel better now.
Maybe.

October Mornings

It's October. That seems like a simple enough statement, but around these parts it is fraught with meaning. How did it get to be October? September was taking forever to get through, but October? It's like seeing purple loosetrife in the summer - when he would see it in bloom, my landlord in Boston used to say that summer was almost over. Of course, it was then only July. But as the years have gone by, I now see purple loosetrife in bloom and can be heard murmuring, "summer is almost over". Snow should be here soon.

We've had warm rainy weather for over a week now. Mornings have been gloriously foggy. Even though the wet gray gets to be a bit much, I like it this time of year as it often makes the leaves in their autumnal colors pop a bit as though they were under black-light from the late 1960's. The maple across the street by the Episcopal church turned its usual bright yellow, stunning against the fog. It has already lost most of its leaves. The church has been doing construction work fixing this and that and adding a small addition which will contain an elevator to its basement, scene of large tag sales. The tag sale usually held this weekend (Columbus Day) will have to be held elsewhere - in Dummerston.

The view from my balcony as the fog burns off and shows the colors that have started to arrive.

It will be a busy weekend. The just up the road village of Dummerston will also have its annual apple pie festival. They make thousands of apple pies for sale - and they sell them all, too. It must be a good recipe  And Newfane, a perfect picture postcard New England village, will have its "Heritage Festival" this weekend. And Friday night here in Brattleboro (oops, that's tonight!) will be our monthly "Gallery Walk", which is kind of an amusing name as most of the art galleries are gone. Still it can be a fun time. I may go.

Thinking about Newfane, I looked for my photos of that village's center taken one autumn years ago. Of course I can't find them at the moment. So here, not intended for this blog, are the digital equivalent of snapshots, taken two days ago. Over the next few days I'll try to dig out a few of my half way decent photos of the autumn colors from years past.

Two buildings down from my apartment, looking towards downtown.

Just around the corner from the red brick house in the shot above.

I love the porch on this house, one more block towards town and across the street from the next shot:

Our town Common. Teddy Roosevelt once gave a speech from that bandstand. 

In the meantime, as I've been writing this the sun has come out from hiding, the sky seems to be making an attempt at turning blue, I have the day off from work and have started thinking about a perambulation around town with my camera, and in a phone call she made to me about something else I just told my boss that I'll be retiring from my job around November 15th. I think it's going to be a good day.