the weather is stunning, clear, breezy, and fresh, but many of us are hanging around inside, playing monopoly or computer games, or like me, blogging, or maybe sometimes bogging. bogging is doing the weboggle, or the online boggle game, which is like doing a sudoku, very relaxing in a way. i often find my sister or brother on there; when they are, team leverett rocks the house, and i get cheap thrills, since i'm so bad i can rarely get even in the first half, by myself.

it's not such a bad time for exercise, although i've given up on dragging my son out there with me at 5:30 in the morning; most times, i'd rather just drink a big fat cup of coffee myself, in my chair, and watch the sun rise, and get my exercise later. i do this by riding my bicycle in, or maybe swimming at the noon hour, or maybe both, or in the case of today, doing both plus walking a little, and calling the triathlon. this is ironic, since it's a tiny town, and i'm not really racing, but in busy times and clear weather, like we had today, any little bit i can get out in it, will keep me sane. i come home ready to relax; i get on the bog, and i play hard though my dumb little computers don't handle the game well.

oniondip is what i consider a champion; he/she has been around since the early days, and always places in the top five; also, there's Pseudonym who capitalizes his/her name for whatever reason. the best teams by far are team axolotl and team Loki but there's also the omnipresent Team Join Me which occasionally places at the top. my brother gets mad when other people join our team, but you never know, they could be from leverett mass, or leverett hall harvard; they could even be leveretts i suppose, though that would be unlikely. when my brother is in there, we often win; he places anywhere from second to tenth all by himself, and has won by himself more than once. he's been accused of practicing during work, but what do we know? he says he only does it when he's waiting for something else, like a printout.

the cooler weather seems to have brought out the hurry in everyone, like they're going to the big football game, or some wild drunken party across town; more than half the students text while they drive so there are accidents everywhere, including a whopper just the other day. who knows if this is really due to texting, or just foolish driving by itself, or some third distraction, but there seems to be a lot of this these days, good weather or not, and i'm sure it keeps the insurance people busy. i keep my eyes very open as i ride the bicycle around town; of course, the first round of this is at seven in the morning, and i can't say the town is full of texters then. on the contrary, it's mostly singing birds, squirrels, sometimes kids waiting for a bus. it's really pretty nice in the morning; it's my favorite time of day; it reminds me of my paper-route days whe a guy who was awake at all could virtually do what he wanted. the bad drivers don't get started until about noon, but by then the combination of bad drivers and texters make the place a downright hazard, even if you're trying to negotiate a simple four-way stop.

back home i avoid going out, even in good weather; we open the windows; we enjoy what i call the ornament valley, a peaceful suburban area with lots of ornamental trees and bushes; it's actually in walking or biking distance to lots of places, and several of us in the house virtually live on our bicycles. yes, when it rains, it throws us off a little. but that's not likely, until at least november. in the meantime, it's clear sailing.