i've been going through my weblogs, updating the little squares on the be there-be square sections - this actually is one of my favorite parts of the weblogs. apparently a few years back i put some be there-be square sections on different weblogs and in general, the more you have out there the more you have to update. i am not only into using new weblogs these days, but also finding that many of the old links just plain became dead. no sense linking to dead places.

it's kind of an intricate coding problem setting up a little square that will sit there and be one of many, like in the template of this very blog, that link to all my favorite places. i like the fact that any of my blogs have these jumping off spots that are so visual, sometimes involving the faces of all my favorite people. i have to kind of get in the mood to fix them and create more though. in some cases it takes days. and once i'm out of the mood, then i'm done for years.

the colors outside have just gone past their peak with a huge number of leaves simply fallen to the point that they make a lot of noise wherever you walk. i consider this glorious although when it's wet, as it is now, there's potential for allergy, mold, etc. it's a real splay of color, though, at least for the moment, and past the peak is actually prettier in its own way than the peak itself. the dogs are loving it. it's a little treacherous, that they can poop and i'll lose it altogether, or just figure it's kind of hidden, which it is, but hidden isn't good for dog poop in big piles of leaves. that amounts to trouble. it's actually better to pick it up if i can, and put it in one of my plastic bags.

at the moment i'm wading through puritan leveretts, the first of my family books, which is not written with an eye to telling a good story, and which should be. i'm trying to rewrite it. as i reread it i notice that the writing is not so bad, a little repetitive, but where it loses out is that it's not really a great story. it's just a collection of facts. and it needs to b a story.

the world is big on football these days, and there's always the world serious, which should not be starting at halloween but should rather be long over by now. we are coming into what i consider the high holy days, the best of the best, the first few days of november which is actually the finest and prettiest of months. saints day, souls day, sadie hawkins day, election day, these comprise the best of holidays if only because the rust-brown colors that we are left with are by far the most beautiful of them. and oddly i'm absolutely the only person who feels this way.

there is no one i know with a birthday in this window, or no reason that i could have concluded this, aside from living sixty-eight years and deciding that this little window, the first few days of november, just happen to be my favorite time of year.

i guess i'll be watching baseball this year because hey, baseball, trains and banjo are the three best things there are. baseball is stupid to put its world serious in the high holy days but i have no control over that. i'll watch anyway, because it's baseball.

and do my squares, and my blog templates. chou