I felt the sky open up right inside my chest.

This beauty was happening all over the place today, which took some of the edge off of a silly (and, in its aftermath, somewhat painful) accident I had earlier that put my laptop out of commission--perhaps for the best, since now I cannot do things like use the computer in bed, and when it comes back it will probably have a new hard drive, which will increase the computer's longevity. I have a hard time imagining that it would have lasted another 18 months with me, really, not the way I've been using it lately. But (or and?) I was startled by how sorry I was to leave it behind with the tech liaison who could cure it. I didn't realize how much affection I've come to have for that inanimate object. Another good reason, one might argue, that it's away from me for awhile. And really, if coffee was going to douse one of my trusty electronic devices, I'm glad it was the computer and not the camera. Darned slippery floors.


The wind swelled up this afternoon. After my last class, I walked back to the officehouse through an ocean's rush of oak leaves. After more talking in the officehouse, site of so much excellent speech over the past few weeks, I walked home past pillars of flame.