It never got out of the forties today. Last night at 10 p.m. it was above 70F. Rained most of the night, so the leaves knocked down by the fierce wind after I raked (Thursday) are wet and packed down. Bummer.

High School football finished up last night and this afternoon, except for the playoffs, which begin next weekend.

Facebook drives me nuts. Most of the bloggers are playing games where you send each other gifts, cows, mafia weapons, etc. There is an "Ignore" button, thankfully.

My porch light is already lit for the real Halloween. If nobody comes, I could care less, but I did buy two bags of Reese's peanut butter cups. The city here had their "Halloween" two nights ago, on a school night, just to piss off the parents I suppose.

Tomorrow is All Saints Day. Big holiday in New Orleans for the best team in the NFL! Go Saints!

I painted and putzed around most of today. I got up early again - 4:00 a.m. - with a huge "crick" in my left upper back. Leaf raking is for athletes, not artists.


Hard to believe: On 9 November it will be 20 years ago that the crowds gathered at the Brandenburg Gate and began to topple the Berlin Wall. Long, long before that, I was in the Army on temporary duty with Berlin Brigade and watched the Vopos build the original wall. It was later replaced by the concrete one, taller and stronger, but I watched and was absolutely certain it would mean war. What it meant was decades of proud defiance by the West Berliners, and an equal time of suffering by those in the East. I watched that night in November of 1989 and cried when I saw them climb the wall and start to tear it apart. Those were tears of joy.


Later...