Ooh, I loved today. The rain has fallen steadily since about noon. The sky is a perfect fall grey, like the grey I remember sitting outside of Lane Tech High School, where I had no friends, or riding the CTA, clinging to the window and feeling totally at peace. I love this weather, and I will be thoroughly depressed when warm weather returns. I could not live somewhere without seasons, and I’m somewhat concerned that when I leave for Italy I’ll miss ten days of the most beautiful Wisconsin Autumn weather. Maybe we’ll take the kids up north to see the leaves change. A few minutes ago I sat on the back porch, under the gazebo, and listened to the rain, faster and more furious than before, and watched the apple tree sway in the wind. The sky was the color of Hopper’s “House At Dusk”, maybe a little darker, even, and I huddled with my flannel (first time I had worn the flannel in forever) and drank iced tea. Beautiful.

This morning S and I drove over to the local farmer’s market not long after dawn. Our local farmer’s market sucks compared to West Bend’s, fifteen miles west, but I wasn’t in the mood for the drive. West Bend’s market has about 100 stands, mushrooms, blueberries, etc., while our local market has weird arts and crafts stands and about ten vegetable stands. The stands stick with the basics, tomatoes, etc. I snagged some kale, cookies, and chocolate/zucchini bread. S was in a good mood, very chatty, and we had fun. After we returned home I could smell the impending rain, so I quickly cut the grass and filled the beer feeders. I was playing Madden on the Wii when M handed me the phone. A neighbor, a Mexican guy named Rick, asked if I wanted to drive down to Milwaukee and help him load a couple dressers into his truck. Now, the most natural response for someone like me would be a quick apology for my packed schedule (the Wii-game was only in the second quarter), but I was in a good mood, so I agreed. We drove down to the Milwaukee barrio, I guess, whatever you’d call the stretch of restaurants and small shops off National without sounding disrespectful. We ate in the back of the El Ray supermarket. I had a burrito. Jesus Christ, the burrito was good, Taco and Burrito House good, and the environment couldn’t have been more authentic. I think I was the only non-Latino in the place. The booths were all standard fast-food, the counter packed, a little girl eating Fruity Pebbles at the next table while her parents had their lunch, man, this place is only thirty minutes from my house, but I might as well have been on Saturn. We drove through a couple rough neighborhoods afterwards. Maybe college is a good idea, you know? I do wonder if my kids are too sheltered, though. I hope my kids learn to fight sooner or later. Anyway, we loaded up the two dressers with minimal drama and drove home in the rain. After unloading the furniture I returned home to discover half the neighborhood playing in my house while M read “Harry Potter” on the front porch. I pulled up a chair and read the Jancee Dunn book next to her. This might have been the first time in thirteen years of marriage and about fifteen years of living together when my wife and I sat next to each other and read. Weird. I wonder if she’ll pick up another book after she finishes the Harry Potter series. I got bored, so I drove around town, picked up batteries (turned out I didn’t need them, the remote control was set on “VCR”) and a twelve pack. After everyone left the boys watched television while I took a bath and read some more. I closed the skylight and turned on the heater. Bliss. Later T and I watched some of the Brewers and Packers games, then a little of High School Musical 2, until we went upstairs and silent read until they fell asleep. Oh, I also told them a stinkpot/wart story. Pretty soon they won’t want to hear them. They’re good kids. I didn’t get to hang out with N as much as I would like today. Oh, at one point M told him to show me how clean he was, so he came into the living room and dropped his pants. Lovely.

I hope the rain continues tomorrow. Good night.