Killing frost last night-- wiped out three out of four of the impatiens-- and I had to turn on the heat. Rats! Summer is over and the back door is shut for the night.

Well, I couldn't finish the Eric Idle book Road to Mars. I read about half, then it began to feel like slogging, so I went quickly over the last of it. Some of the observations on comedy were very interesting. The Kinky Friedman, Armadillos & Old Lace, was very good; the Spenser, Hush Money, was good, but I have never been able to believe his girlfriend, Susan. Never. She seems more like a delusion or hallucination than a character, so I generally ignore her. Today I stopped by the library and picked up The Metaphysica of Avicenna (ibn Sina) by-- get this!-- Parviz Morewedge. I've been waiting for this book since August; had to get it through Providence College. There are two more I'm still waiting on...

I've been drinking tea-- herbal tea since I developed the distaste for coffee. It's nice really because now I can have a hot drink at night. Tonight it's Yogi Bhajan's Millepertuis Commun Melange de Tisane (tout naturel; sans cafeine). ("Melange de tisane" is a mixture compounded for medicinal purposes.) The box says it contains, among many other things, 850mg per cup of St. John's Wort leaf and flower tops. I don't believe I need an antidepressant, I just ran across a whole collection of the Yogi's teas at Ocean State Job Lots and decided to try some. Since OSJL is a remnants and truckload store, the price is right. There's no expiration date on the box, of course, but it tastes okay -- got a bit of anise in it... and ginger, fennel, fenugeek, cardamom, cinnamon, lavender, spearmint, clove, black pepper... prpbably won't do me any harm. What the heck? I got some really good chocolate cookies a few weeks ago for 99 cents. The bag was all in Italian. I think the expiration date was October 98, but I can't be sure. The cookies were excellent and I'm still here to tell the tale. I hope they get them again sometime. I'll buy two bags.

Well, I've got to get back to work. Even though I am, technically, on vacation...