-There’s a protective parent down the street who thought she’d make some additions to the municipal signage by painting on the road in front of her house last year in various colors.  She didn’t realize that the white enamel would far outlast the acrylics.  “Go Slow, Kids Play Here!” has evolved into a different message.

-I’ve found a new way to mess with the hordes of scam artists who come around wanting me to change water heater companies.  I turn off the porch light before quickly opening the door and addressing them from the darkened hallway.

-I ask little of my followers, but this is an absolute rule:   If you discover a fantastic horror or suspense film, you are expected to share your impressions with me.

-Speaking of which, this blog gets morbid in October.  I will tag my ghastlier drawings with “horror” for those of you who are sensitive and filter such things.

-I was listening to Regina Spektor in the car this morning, (it was a perfect accompaniment to the weather), and I got a little sad about all the forgotten pianos that people have discarded in the last twenty years. Nothing sounds as good as a “real” piano. It’s discernible.

-running to and from my shed with a guitar-shaped lump under my T-shirt trying to keep the pouring rain from messing up my fastidious sanding.

It’s too late for coffee but I’m feeling stressed and need to be outside in the dark. Cool rush of air against my bare arm. It’s a windows-down kind of night.  The scent of pizza ovens and cut grass and factories working overtime. Glints and reflections and the silhouette of signs in closed shop windows.   Scary teens. Hijabi’d grandmothers pushing strollers. Plastic bags and barking dogs.

-There seems to be more than the expected number of one-armed people in my neighborhood these days. Enough that you’d take notice and comment.

-When I record myself for narration, I sound younger than I feel.  It’s disconcerting.

-What kind of a grocery store ONLY carries maxi pads, (nine different kinds) but NO tampons?  It’s an historically Catholic area, but still. 

-I see people doing that “three fictional characters” thing, but I’d be hard pressed to come up with some.  I’m not well represented in the literature, and the ones I’d pick are obscure enough that I’d be laughed at.