A day so near perfection
was yesterday. I stayed home--it was 60 and sunny, golden sun and the bluest sky it knows how to be. The leaves are moving past peak but the forest still glows with yellows and oranges. We're into the raining of leaves phase of autumn now. I made sure I went to bed at a decent hour, took a pill so I got enough sleep, and set out to enjoy the day by being productive. I paid bills, walked them out to the mailbox with the dogs--all 4 of us thoroughly enjoyed the walk. I love walking with happy dogs, it's such a pleasure. I stacked 8 wheelbarrow loads of firewood and can see the end of this process. About 4-5 more days and I'll have the load all stacked. Not bad, not bad at all. I admired my newly painted coffee table. It was supposed to be burgundy, according to the paint can, but it's really more of a berry color, too purple really, but at least it's not green anymore. I dumped out my flower pots and took them off the deck railing. I'm not looking at dead plants anymore. This cheers me up a lot. A LOT. I tidied up around the outside of my house just the slightest bit. I sat in the sun in a chair and read for 1 1/2 hours. I did not allow myself to read Newsweek or Vanity Fair. I made myself read The Greenlanders. This is a good book but it's a saga. A real saga. We're in Greenland and there are a lot of people with really weird unpronounceable and very long names so you can't say them to yourself as you read. They have horses, sheep and cows and hunt reindeer into pits to slaughter them. They each have their own spoon, which they carry around with them in a pouch, and since there are no trees they have to barter livestock for lumber. As soon as you become attached to a character he dies. It's very well written, and I'm on page 135 of 581. Leave it to Jane Smiley, who has to be one of the most versatile writers ever.

I went to Ken's for dinner and he had cooked pot roast, only this time (at last) he got it right and actually cooked it long enough so that it was tender and tasted good. I had Southern Comfort (I bought him a bottle because he likes it) and reminded myself that I don't like SoCo. We watched tv for a while but I left there because it was really boring pre-debate stuff. I went to Linda's and ended up watching the debate with them. I didn't want to but there it was, right in front of me. I needed 2 drinks to get through it and even then I was still sober (Bush has a sobering effect on me, apparently).

So I had a good day and I felt good. No despair, no deep unrelenting sorrow. The warm sunshine helped, the beauty of my homeland helped, my dogs helped, and it all made me feel good, just good. I can do this.