the nose exploded, keeping me awake all night thinking I might have been coming down, after all the wanton socializing of the previous week, with something akin to those two weeks’ misery

at the beginning of summer. Consequently I only made it as far as the standing rock for a walk but after screwing up one painting [everything corrupted’s correctible] and some dozing

on the couch in the sun things improved.  Miraculously cured, more days of cool mornings,

drying meadows, the woods in the afternoons…autumnal light,

reading, dinners no longer possible out…too cold.

Soon the world rushed in, or was about to, so we began straightening up days in advance

of Tuesday’s houseguests before Monday’s requisite

run to town to meet a locksmith from Trinidad [no such animal in the ‘burg, apparently] to beef up security at the ‘bib, meet Charles the volubly manic Texan who we’d found through the guy

at the dump to take over grooming the yard after a couple years of uncertainty,

gather provisions for Linda’s birthday and, after loading a bunch of bronze and cast glass,

spend some quality time with the work while the door got an additional deadbolt.

Then it was on to the Garner P.O., a much belated lunch and that evening caught the final

installment [“Round 4”] of Ken Burns “Muhammad Ali” on the small [all we have] screen…highly

recommended, but now, in tearing haste, the Birthday is upon us, so…