Today is a gloomy sort of day. Dank, dark, humid and rainy. Not what comes to mind when you think “October.” October is supposed to start off a bit brisk, with a light breeze carrying hints of dry leaves hiding under trees and wood smoke from the neighbor’s stove. It’s supposed to end with happy little ghosts and gremlins stomping their way through piles of leaves, knowing the first “real” snowfall is just days away.

This year doesn’t seem to fit the pattern. Yesterday the high was in the 90’s. Today it wasn’t much cooler, and the humidity is through the roof. It’s raining heavily at the moment. Tomorrow, they say, we’ll be lucky if the high gets out of the 40’s. That’s too much of a swing, now, don’t you think? From the 90’s to the low 50’s? How’s a body supposed to deal with that…

You know how you never remember to fix that pesky windshield wiper when it’s nice and sunny? The only time you think of it is when it’s raining… I have a gutter like that. I can hear the water puddling and splashing where it’s not supposed to, right outside my side door. I GOTTA remember to get that fixed! I’m sure it’s something simple, but I don’t have a ladder to get up there to look, so I’m gonna have to hire someone to do it. (I’d buy a ladder, but I don’t have a garage door, so I’d have to store it inside, right next to my weed whacker and my lawn mower, and I just don’t have room. So, technically, I should buy a garage door. Then I could buy a ladder and store it in the garage. Then I could fix my own gutters. But that all takes money and time…)

My beloved bride should be home from the store any minute now. She called earlier and said she was hungry for fish. Again. (She had sushi last night. Salmon tonight.) So she went to buy fish after work. I’m looking forward to a quiet night tonight. Of course, as I’m typing this, the neighbors are parked in my driveway again, honking and yelling obscenities at each other… I trudged out there in my robe and shook my fist at them, trying to get the “shut up and get off my property – I’m trying to relax, dammit” point across, but the just ignored me. I think I shall trudge back out there with my digital camera and take pictures. For evidence, you know. Oops, they’re gone now. Oh well.

I heard on the news over the weekend that George W. Bush has nominated a new supreme court justice. Judge Roberts has already been fitted for robes, this one is Harriet Miers, Mr. Bush’s friendly attorney. I don’t know what to think of Ms. Miers, to be honest. She’s never been a judge, and she claims Mr. Bush is the most brilliant man she’s ever known. Those two things right there scare me.

Okay, I’m upset now. I could hear the rain upgrade itself from a mild rain to a downpour. At the same time I heard cars honking right outside my house. I go out on the porch, and there are the neighbors, parked in my driveway again. This time they’re just sitting in their SUV thing, waiting for the rain to let up. My wife is stopped in the street, honking at them. They don’t move. Dagmar gets out of her car, in a torrential downpour, goes over to the neighbor’s car, and asks them to move. She trudges (that’s the third “trudge” so far today) back to her car. They still didn’t move until Dagmar honked again. By this time I had my boots on and was ready to intervene, but I missed my chance by seconds. Now poor Dagmar is soaked to the bone – NOT a good thing when she’s recovering from acute bronchitis. We gotta buy a sign or something! This is getting crazy…