I have this dream where Palin is out in the Alaskan wilderness with her high-powered weapon and scope, looking for game and a polar bear sneaks up behind her and … Nothing left but maybe an earring that a quick-witted companion grabs to sell on Ebay.

Today I asked Ed where we would move if McPalin succeeded and he said maybe Spain. And I said we don’t know the language, and he said we’d learn. But Spain does make sense, since MCain doesn’t know where it is.

Seriously, several television clips of McCain recently have me wondering if he has a neurological deficit. I have some experience in observing waning abilities and his haziness on details (no it isn’t normal, particularly not for someone campaigning for president) has me concerned.

We are moving into fall and winter and that is when the snowbirds come back, and traffic increases (I can hear Ed moaning now even though it is still nowhere near the traffic in NYC). One of my neighbors has already decked out his front yard as a cemetery with skulls, tombstones, etc., in anticipation of Halloween. He says he does it for his kids.

Years ago in NY, Jay (my late husband) and I went to a Halloween party in Queens, riding on the subway in our costumes, me in my debut as a white witch and Jay as Merlin. It was held at a 3-story frame house (I forget what part of Queens) in a house owned by Lin Carter, the sci fi writer. The house had black ceilings decorated with stars and crescent moons. There were mummies and skeletons and a suit done up with wires, as the invisible man. Someone said this was all year not just for Halloween. (I don’t know if that was true.)

Later at a sci fi con I approached Lin to say hi, and he ignored me because at that moment he was basking in the adulation of half a dozen young boys all agog at meeting the writer. And, yeah, I thought he was tacky.

Meanwhile, Ed is touching up the interior of the house where the paint is showing wear. Our paint store says Flex Bon is out and Povia is in and we can’t match one of our colors until we find the old number. Oh, rats. But Ed is so proud of his repair work, he keeps interrupting me to look and praise.

And while we were out today, Brunswick discovered a roll of toilet paper that fell to the floor, and shredded it. What a great kitty.

xx, Teal