I know I'm not overly responsive to your e-mail, though I do read it all. But this one was just to good to pass up.

From a reader: Bushwhacked

:)

The change in Kerry's presidential campaign comes as a pleasant surprise. The vague and cryptic seems to be finally making way for the clear and succinct. Bytesize, though sad in itself, seems to be the maximum message volume this populii is able to digest.

Their TV ads are also getting less boring. A couple of them are actually a bit witty. Cheaky, even. Now, how would I know that, the TV-less hick that I have become? Well, they're all on the Net now. Check 'em out. Though most of them are still dull fluff, some are worth watching: This one actually said what needed to be said, this one is to the point, and this one is hard-hitting.

Now, this one may not be verbose or well-reasoned. But it's funny. Hilarious, actually. I recommend it.

Why oh why have I not gone to bed yet?

Can somebody pleasae tell me why I am baking brownies? At midnight. When my daughter will be waking up in seven hours. Could it be because I can't bring myself to going up to that empty bedroom? Or because I'm too restless to sleep? Maybe it's just that I like baking brownies.

Actually, the last time I made these brownies, they proved utterly and sinfully irrresistable. To anyone who came within aroma distance of them.

So maybe it's that. Right?

It has begun.

The quiet, cool blaze is burning its way through here. The tall trees, lusciously green just a few weeks ago, are falling prey to this silent inferno. The red and the yellow and orange flames lick the bodies of these giants. Gently undressing them, letting their cloaks slide to the ground. Leaving them bare. Somber. Ready for their winter coat.

As I was climbing the hills yesterday, the bike moving slowly enough for me to actually notice what was happening around me, it suddenly felt like this woodland was letting out its last sigh of summer. The sizzle is gone from the sunny beams, and the fire in the leaves foretell the inevitable arrival of winter.

It is becoming quiet. Again. A moment's pause, while Nature prepares to change the setting. She carefully rolls up the green carpets of the meadows. Bottles the red from the roses. Puts the singing of the birds, and the chirping of the crickets, in a cardboard box. And while she busies herself with those autumn chores, everything else sits patiently by.

Watching the seasons turn.

I really, really was not going to follow this debate. We don't even have a TV. But then I thought "OK, I'll listen on the radio. Just to the first few minutes."

Yeah, right.

After listening to 90 minutes of exchanges between an obviously intelligent, curteous, and three-dimensional person, and a clumsy, inarticulate, and apparently not-to-bright individual.

And the irritating thing is that it is going to be the clumsy one, the one that kept repeating the overly-simplistic and childish slogans over and over again, that is going to win.

You know what? It really is not an election between these two men. It is not a test of them. This is a test of this nation. Of the electorate of the United States of America. The people living here will be tested on November second. Like never before. The dust of these two towers have settled. There are no more excuses. The cold, hard truth of the situation is apparent. The alleged connections. The proposed threat. What needs be done. What must not happen.

And it saddens me immensely to say this, but I fear that the nation is about to fail that test. And the blame will not just sit with a single Texan anymore, but the nation that will have blessed his deeds.

We actually ended up seeing Garden State. Which was pretty good.

Just going out was good. Meeting my wife. Having a friend babysit.

Nice. Just, nice.

I may not be much of a chick flick type of guy, but I want to see Before Sunset. Even if I've heard so little about it, I think I am going to like it.