Rebecca and I bought gourds and pumpkins and a bale of hay and cornstalks for our Halloween decorations today. More pumpkins are needed, but they will have to wait until next weekend. The cornstalks barely fit in the car, the ends resting on the armrest between the two front seats. It’s all arrayed out by the lamppost now, although we’ll have to take it in on Mischief Night to prevent the pumpkin smashing that seems to have become a required rite of passage for teenagers in our area.

I walked around our small town today in the bright sun, looking for a couple of gifts and a table for the family room. I wandered into the only art gallery our town holds and was amazed by the artwork of a woman named Lauren Acton. She has a painting in the gallery called Three Women that I’m thinking about buying. The colors – teals and turquoise and russets – are not ones that I have anywhere in my home, but the painting is strong enough that I would build an entire room around, from a color perspective. The theme of three women is important to me. There have been various female triads throughout my life – my sister, my mother, myself; my mother, her sister, their mother; my two daughter and me; my two college roommates and me – which were all important to me at various times. There’s another painting called Red Head that is almost as intriguing. Thw owner of the gallery walked me through the paintings, and even brought one out that had already been boxed for shipping to a show they’re having in New York. She must have thought I was a potentially serious buyer. Or maybe it’s that I was the only one in the gallery.

Movies: Lost in Translation. Enough superlative reviews have been written about the marvelous performances of both Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson that I don’t feel the need to add my own. This is a movie of small scenes, each a gem unto itself. Charlotte sits on a bench in a hallway outside a party, lost from the crowd inside. Bob sits in his tiled soaking tub, lost from his wife. But the real loss is the one that two people share when they “do the right thing” and lose a piece of their soul for doing so.

Music: Damien Rice, the song that has the line “I can’t take my mind off of you”, and Aimee, in which he tells her to come sit on his wall and read him the Story of O.