firefighters are having a busy night tonight, since it was a football game evening, and since i went out for a walk, i pretty much heard them all, and experienced the post-game activity. the game is everything here. people were happy that the season started again. People were happy that they won. People were wrapped up in the details: whether they won by enough, whether things went well or what might be changed before the next game.

at the grocery store, right around game time (what they call "kickoff") most people, most people, were wearing red and black. and these were the people who weren't going to the game. it was a lot of red and black, out there in the world, in favor of the home team. the cashier, however, wasn't impressed. maybe it made the place too busy for her taste.

been writing stories (see below) and working on language as a self-organized system. i should be working on my class, which will be studying social media, but it's the labor day holiday, and i'm trying to take some holiday time. soon enough, i'll get to what we're studying. i wrote a poem, in the style of the master, dr. seuss, about my day. it came out of me so easily, so freely, that i considered devoting part of my life to making more like it. the world needs another dr. seuss, a modern-day bard. a friend of mine does a little bit of it, somewhat like dr. seuss, but there aren't many.

went to new mexico one more time, last weekend, to go camping once before the fall set in, and pulled it off. took the tent, pitched it in the mountains, had a window of time where it didn't rain too much up there, and took in some nice mountain breaths of cool wet air. down in the valley beyond, we saw my parents briefly, and turned around and came back, skipping the white sands this time. the camping, the smores, and the dew on the green grass were a big hit. millions of stars dotted the sky, along with the milky way itself, high above the tall pines that we camped in. i woke up several times each night, perhaps because i was sleeping on the hard ground, but each time i looked up through the little tent window, saw those millions of stars, and went right back to sleep. i dream well on nights like that. but then i come back, and life on the high, flat sunny plain - well, i guess i'm doing ok. i'm not in the high rockies, but at least i'm 3300 feet above the rising seas. and the skies are beautiful way up here.