Autumn is my favorite time of year. It's a time of year when the frenetic, almost violent nature of Spring and Summer give way to the starkness of Winter. Autumn is a gentle time of year, barring hurricanes, when crops are harvested and trees are tapped for syrup and the apples are good for cider.

The obsession with rain that typified my Spring and the shortages of water and foliage that was a big part of my Summer gives way to a lack of concern, in these Autumn months. Rain no longer matters. It can or can't, as it will -- it's not going to be killer dry no matter what happens. And New England seems the most New England to me now. Oh, we don't get to sail or the like, but flannel shirts and windbreakers and light jackets from L.L. Bean are out, and they seem all too appropriate. This is good hiking weather.

The hunters are out, banging away. Buddy, back at the homestead, is now wearing his Autumn Coat (a blaze orange bandana. Hunters aren't supposed to hunt anywhere near houses, but they do, especially up that way, and one of our neighbors is a cretin who'd shoot a dog and think it was a bear. I'm surprised he still has all his children, frankly.

So Buddy wears his orange, and so do Mom and Dad when they go out to work. It's safest. (A couple of years back, a hunter who shot a woman dead when she was standing in her backyard in the open was exonerated of accidental manslaughter. I'm not anti-hunter, but people who break the habitation laws deserve to get treated as criminals, period.)

With autumn and cold winds and rain comes illness. Mason and Jon alike have been struck by the plague something fierce. Aside from my (non-illness, I assume) migraine, I've been pretty healthy this autumn, to date. I'll get my flu shot when it's time for that, however.

I've got some positive things a-comin' up. First and probably best, it looks very good for me to be contributing to an In Nomine sourcebook. My outline for my section's in and the communications have been very positive. We'll see Friday or Monday. Frankly, this won't pay much. But, it'll be a statement. To the world, if nothing else. All those years of die rolling and imagination around a tabletop finally would get some small return. I'd like that.

Besides, it's paying more than my current writing's taking in. IE -- nada.

Also in news, Dominic and Annie have returned to this coast, to go to a big to-do in Connecticut, which Gary Olson is also going to. Which means I get to see Dominic and Annie on Friday and Gary for a couple of days next week, and that's good stuff all ways around. The weekend I plan on doing a lot of laundry and sitting in cafes with a powerbook. Man, do I lead an exciting life or what?