And now for something completely different...

Well, maybe we can't solve the world's problems with a blog (though sometimes I feel like we could do a better job than Blair and Bush). Like any greenhorn blogger, I suppose, I managed to cover religion and war in my first few days. Cindra is concerned that maybe I'm a bit too heavy for this crowd. You know, the irony is that in person I'm always out for a laugh (though rarely achieved-- my 14 year old daughter will certainly attest to that) and not that heavy of a person (except in pounds per square inch-- 5'6" and just over 200 lbs). I guess I feel that the fact that we are at war is pretty important, yet we are also at life. One day at a time. and for many of us, myself included most of the time, that is enough.

Unbeknownst to you new friends, I spend a fair amount of time in the middle east, specifically Saudi Arabia (I'll tell you all about it at some point I'm sure). I have been traveling there on business for just coming up on ten years and one of the things that has struck me over the years is that people are people, generally speaking. The majority of us, as far as I can see, don't want any hassles, don't want to kill anybody, would love it if other people would stop killing people and really just want to get back to our families at the end of the day and live our lives. Like I said, we are also at life.

So here's to you, livers of lives, dreamers of dreams, lovers of love. Here's a non-political day in my life:

It just started raining again here in the temperate rainforest of Oregon. Oregon. Just the word means "green." But we do have long, hot summers and when that switch is thrown ( and some years, like this one, it is just like a switch has been thrown by some elves in the night), Fall comes; the rain comes. Today I walked out of the open garage doors of the shop and just smelled the new rain-- the forest duff (It's like a forest every where you turn in suburban Eugene) parched from months of sun, released a pungent, damp smell, almost like cow manure. It may not sound too palatable, but to me it was a glorious smell, rising from the earth all around me. It was life.

I would love to hear your Fall thoughts....

Tom