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OCTOBER 31 Breakfast was a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, orange juice, and coffee. Dinner was grilled chicken with mushrooms and steamed asparagus. Lunch was, at the Cast Iron Kitchen, fried artichokes, arugula salad, and fettuccini Alfredo. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 33.1 and 70.9. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS Chicago's "Harry Truman". LARGE EXPENSES SINCE LAST UPDATE portable Garmin GPS $159, part II of Bangor roof repair, $3800 oil change at Jeefy Loob $33, Beff's new clarinet bell $300. COMPANIES THAT HAVE NOT COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY well, maybe Jeefy Loob -- since the oil change Tuesday, when I start the car the "MAINT REQD" light blinks exactly eight times when I start the car up. And K-Mart, for selling me a rake whose two parts had not been joined. COMPANIES THAT HAVE COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY the gas station near K-Mart -- who sells firewood bundles for two thirds the price anywhere else. PET PEEVE leaves and pine needles that fall onto areas already raked. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: I was in two acts for Spring Frolics my junior year of high school. I reported here once that we put together a band to perform Chicago's "Harry Truman" while it was still on the charts -- I played trombone, took the tune off the radio, and did the arrangement, all the while wincing every time Bobby Chevalier, the pianist, played the wrong chord. I also played blues piano (in C, of course) blindfolded, with Bob Choiniere, who also played blues in C, blindfolded. On the program, it was only me listed as the pianist, so it must have been a surprise after the introduction to see two of us. We made it through just fine. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: Now the cats love to look out the open window by the pump organ. And yesterday Sunny bounded and leaped all around the back yard, including running up and down trees, as Beff and I raked. UPDATED ON THIS SITE THIS WEEK: This page, Performances. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: tilaginous, describing a jelly-like food shaped like a fish but which tastes like tofu. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 4. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE my longest burp was 1974, while drinking Fresca, timed at 19 seconds. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Northeastern winters that return to the late 80s and early 90s. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 14, 103. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE RECENTLY $2.57 in Maynard. THE LIST I MADE BUT FORGOT WHY my head, ladybugs, a tree trunk, manhole covers, 'Round Midnight.

Trains were in the back of the tub when we had to put the elastic bands back on and watch them fly north. It wasn't that our wagons had lost any of their wheels, and neither did we think we had to put goo into the granite headstones that had been interrupted by magic -- but it did make us lose a little bit of time, and the feathers were telling us to get lost. Over in Cheepsterville, everybody was waking the dogs up and taking silly putty to them. But that eventually faded into the internet.

I type this to you, dear reader, on Halloween while Weather Bug on this computer chirps a High Wind Warning at me. Them what make are right this time, as all those nicely raked, bare areas are slowly getting recovered with the just-fallen leaves -- I've been finding out that it is very hard to rake leaves that are still affixed to trees. Nonetheless, we have tons of leaves around us, there are always lots to get rid of, and we have to start earlier than usual this year because we'll lose about 10 raking days to nobody being here. More on that later. First I'm sure you'll want to read all of the tedious prose, soon to follow, about the start of leaf-raking season. And other things.

Last weekend and this one, Beff's time in Maynard has been cut short by various things back in Maine to which she is obligated to show up. In fact, as I type this, three days early, and on a Saturday morning, Beff is already on her way back to Maine, with the cats. Today's obligation: view the pep band (or whatever they call it) at a U Maine football game. Lordy. Meanwhile, this fine windy Halloween day brings me into Brandeis for the first composers concert of the year. I had heard some of the rehearsals while I was in this week, and all sounds good.

So exactly three weeks ago I took out a rake for the first time and raked up some pine needles near our new yard area. I took out a barrel to bring them to our discard area, and that was a half-barrel's worth. Two weeks later minus one, Beff and I started the raking season officially. Luckily for us, the three big maples that line the driveway and the two in the front yard go bare before almost all the other trees around here, so we can start in on those areas and be reasonably finished before moving onto the other many-yarded area. So with several days of raking in tandem, and with me doing some on the non-Brandeis days, we have just about finished the front yard and the side of the driveway, and we have done first passes in the area around the garage. Total so far: 56 barrels. Total raked last year: 116 barrels. Next raking day: November 13. Yow. And by the way -- my back kind of hurts.

Meanwhile, I think I may have reported here that I finished entering a movement of a four-cello piece, and that it may suck, or not. Still no definitive answer on that one, but tuned you should stay. There has not been any new creative attemptingness (see raking, previous paragraph), and I have had to start work on a speech. For you see, on Tuesday I up and drive to the airport in the dark, board a plane in the dark, deboard a plane in the light, board a plane in the light and deboard a plane in the light. Not that there's anything wrong with that. And the last time I deboard I will be in or near Sacramento and looking for the Avis car rental counter. Then on Wednesday I do a colloquium of sorts at UC Berkeley, and on Thursday I give said keynote speech for the Festival of New American Music at Sacramento State, hang out for the gala concert that night, and hang out for Marilyn Nonken's concert the following Monday. Then the next day I board a plane in the dark, etc. The Sacramento trip explains some of why I have purchased a pocket Garmin GPS -- I want to be talked to as I try to find Sam and Laurie's place in Woodland, and CNMAT in Berkeley, and Sacramento State. My cell phone also has GPS, but I've noticed that when the program is running it tends to go brain dead for a minute or two at a time at awkward times. So ...

As to teaching, et al, all is well. In fact, this week verged on the first week that all eight private composition meetings happened, but it was not to be -- the last one simply didn't happen, owing to a sleeping through the alarm thing. And I had a meeting of the Experiential Learning committee to go to (I'm on the Experiential Learning Committee). And we finally dispensed with the stoopid Aldwell-Schachter textbook in Theory 2 and are moving on. We talked about humor, bisociation, humor in music, and specifically Mozart's Musical Joke. Shortly a unit on chorale writing is to happen, and two of those classes will be taught by my colleague Eric Chafe. I like when I can find good peoples to fill in for me.

And when I get back from California, not only will I have to continue the teaching of chorale writing -- I'll also be thrust back into raking, and hopefully with all the raw material off the trees and onto the ground. One tough thing about this year's raking, by the way, is the yard behind the garage. The neighbor's oak tree has been very acorn-fecund this year, and they have to be gathered by hand. They also make the barrel very, very heavy. So there.

And signs of the winter abound here as -- we brought the bikes into the basement, the Adirondack chairs into the shed, the picnic table into the basement, and the chaise lounges from the gazebo into the side porch. My target date for restoring them to the outdoors is March 15, approximately. The hammock is still set up because of today's predicted warm temperatures, but will be basemented tomorrow. Soon you die.

The only other time-consuming thing recently concerns my upcoming sabbatical. One has to plan far ahead for residencies, etc., and I did the application for one which was done mostly online, and involved me soliciting some recommendation letters. But the file size limit for uploads is 7 megs, which means I had to send the musical examples via escargot mail. And I started checking the application deadlines for the usual colony suspects, and that means around January 1 for some of them. Lawdy.

See, now that's all, and kind of a dull update to boot. Hopefully it can be rescued by some nice pictures. Coming up is, of course, California and back. Musica Viva on the 20th. Going to Albany for Thanksgiving. And, of course, raking.

Today's pictures include the big trees in our backyard a week and a half ago, and yesterday. Next, morning and evening shots of Summer Hill (which we see out our front door). Next, Great Road, looking west, in the morning. Next, Cammy trying to keep me from doing my grading. Then, both cats looking out their new favorite window, and Cammy looking from the side porch. Bye.