Harbingers of Autumn

Fall is knocking on the door. Houston is still squinting through the peephole, trying to decide if it’s safe to let Fall come inside. But Fall is definitely knocking. It’s still hot during the day, in the sun, but in the shade it’s cooler, and the evenings are lovely.

I’m working a late sim tonight so I took the morning off. I spent most of it in one of my fake plastic Adirondack chairs on the balcony waiting to see Jose fly over in the little yellow airplane. But I never saw him; I don’t know how, but I missed him. He went on a long cross country flight; in fact, he’s still out there flying, somewhere between Brenham and Pearland.

While waiting, I read a lot more of my book. I don’t read nearly enough — instead, I go on reading kicks. If I get into a book, I read it quickly and then unless I have something else to start, I stop reading, instead passing my time with computer stuff and watching TV. But the impending autumn makes me want to curl up with a book so I’m reading again. I’m currently about three-quarters of the way through “Bringing Down the House,” a book about a group of MIT students that won big in Vegas (and elsewhere) in the 1990s by counting cards in blackjack. I remember Melanie reading it a few years ago, and finally got around to picking it up myself. It started off slow, but the action picked up once the main character joined the team and began winning big — much to the chagrin of the slow-to-notice casino managers. It’s been a good read.

My next reads are waiting for me at home. Jose loves to go to Borders, which I don’t mind — it just means that I end up buying more and more books. Last time I picked up “The Mole People,” about people living under New York City, and “Isacc’s Storm,” about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Apparently I’m on a non-fiction kick.

Maybe after that I’ll read the books that Gavin loaned me more than a year and a half ago. I’ve gotten the feeling he wants them back…