All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray

So at the lake, pausing in today's closing-down-for-the-winter chores to say that thanks to brother Tim, I now know of a way that I could keep this place open all winter without having to keep the water pipes charged, and therefor the heat on to keep them liquid. All I need is a waterless composting toilet. Showers are optional at the lake in winter; drinking, cooking and fork-and-cooking-pot-cleaning water can be toted here in bottles, as can paper plates. All I need is $1,300 or $1,400. All contributions gratefully accepted.

Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis

I turned 16 that day in 1962. I remember standing mesmerized on the stairs up to my bedroom, watching JFK speak on the big black-and-white Dumont in the living room, talking seriously, calmly, resolutely about war. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50RNAbmy3M When it was over, I looked at my father and he looked back up at me. We didn't say anything. My mother was murmuring quietly, and I knew that she was saying the Rosary. I don't remember what came on the TV right after -- probably Walter Cronkite, commenting and explaining. When I eventually continued my climb up the stairs, it was not to do homework as I had planned. I lay on my bed in the dark and watched through the south-facing double windows the glow of New York City in the southern sky, imagining the white-hot flash that would come, waiting for the flash.

SEP

Election '08

A friend suggests that the current economic crisis will be a blip, if calm prevails. But I don't think calm is going to prevail. McCain-Palin have all but announced that they're going to start a phony attack campaign against Obama, to try to distract everyone from the disasters looming (economy, terororism, and war on the two fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan). And I would not be at all surprised in the next few weeks if Bush didn't suddenly perceive a "new" threat from Iran or North Korea and make an aggressive move to open up a new front somewhere, in expectation of scaring people into voting for McCain as a "better wartime president" (not much evidence for that, but people will believe any goddam thing). It's a dark time for the country.