Less Maudlin.

Woke up this morning to a kind of thin high haze and thought oh, hell, once more around, but something shifted over the course of the day, something in the light, I don't know, and it got warmer, and then colder, and now it's the kind of cold that seems to matter, not snow cold, nowhere near, not much of anything, only barely enough for a freeze, but it seems like something, like weather, and I'll take it.

We were in that middle ground, not fall, not winter, not anything. Now we're sliding toward something new.

At least now I know the roses will get hit overnight, the hydrangeas, what's left of the hostas. It's certainly not winter. Not yet. But we have achieved a kind of small shift.

Had the first of the TLK eggnog tonight, a harbinger of something good left out in front of us. Tomorrow the lights up on the front of the house, football I can't quite give a damn about, something big on the grill. Kids in my office this afternoon with real stories. Dog wagging her tail across the comforter. Cats piled up on my goddamn chair.

We'll see.