Official-dom

It's official, the outdoor furniture is stored away, and we are expecting our first frost this week.  No complaining, though, as it's been a pretty spectacular fall, with glorious sunny days.  In fact, the weather has been so good, it's hard to sit in a dark office and do school work.  

It's also official that I am now a member of the Pittsfield Historical Commission, and I have my first meeting tonight.  Will Garrison, the curator I worked with at Arrowhead this summer, is the chair of the commission, so he nominated me.  Mary and I went to the city council meeting where they approved the nomination (by unanimous vote - or maybe pro forma) and then I was sworn in and passed the on-line ethics course.  I am not sure all it entails, but I do remember submitting our own demolition request to the commission for a waiver before we could start work on this house.  

What else is official?  Okay, I gotta say it. It's official, our government is dysfunctional.  The Red Sox and the Cardinals are in the World Series, that's pretty official.  

Joe is officially in London now.  He left at the beginning of the shutdown.  We spoke to him last night, after two weeks of work.  He's working for the U.S. representative of a European bank.  The work sounds hard, as it's multilateral, meaning that he has to find common ground with other countries to get anything accomplished.  It used to be easier when we ran the world.  Of course, running our own country used to be easier.

Margaret, as I write, is on her way back from a weekend in Mexico.  She and Andrew had gone down for the wedding of one of her high school amigas.  We got a couple of photos, and it looked like she was having and fun and visiting a few of our old haunts.  

Annie had a weekend course, and she is busy with homework.  She still finds time for catching up with friends from Hamilton and Pomfret.  A nice benefit to being back in the U.S.

Birthdays this time of year are for Claire, Billy and Kathleen.  Wonderful.  

Mary is enjoying her new job, and likes the part-time status.  She got a little bored with Mr. Gotta-read-all-the-time and went down for a girls' weekend with Marj in Rhode Island for a night of giggling, I think.  

We talked to David who says their bathroom project is done, very quickly as well.  And, best of all, it looks nice.  

Anyone else with leaves?  Anyone need a leaf blower?  I found in our basement Pop's old leaf blower, the subject of his famous story about having a discussion with Mom over whether to buy one or continue to use his trusty rake.  He wanted the rake, Mom the leaf blower, and he ended his story by telling us he'd let us know how much the leaf blower cost. He told it better.

We actually have a natural leaf blower, the wind, which moves all our leaves into the woods. Pop's line about leaves - the family that leaves together, stays together.   

And on that note, love from over here.