This morning on the way to work I saw yet another sign that fall will soon be upon us (in addition to hearing that there was already snow in the mountains in Utah) - a squirrel carrying a nut that was, uh, well, larger than your average nut. He must have dislocated his jaw in order to carry it. Another squirrel narrowly missed an early demise as he scooted out of my parking place at work. Again, he was carrying a large part of his winter larder in his mouth. I had a book when I was a kid that told the story of a squirrel who worked hard to store up enough food for winter, while one of his friends frittered the summer away, lying in the pool and listening to Outkast. Ok, that might be a slight embellishment. It was probably the Rolling Stones back then. Anyway, the story was a thinly veiled admonition to adhere to the WASP work ethic OR ELSE BAD THINGS WOULD HAPPEN. It probably would have been more effective if they had shown a picture of the shriveled, emaciated body of the feckless friend, rather than letting the squirrel with a type A personality rescue him, but then I suppose that would have constituted child endangerment.

Books: Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett. Melissa Scott is the author of a number of science fiction books I’ve enjoyed over the years. This collaboration and the previous book, Point of Hopes, are, hard as this is for me to admit, fantasy novels, although I prefer to think of them as historical science fiction mysteries. They are set in an alternative Elizabethan England, where astrology and necromancy are important parts of the culture. Although the story moves along somewhat slowly, the details are interesting, as are the relationships, which involve many same sex couples. There is no mention of “gay” or “straight”, just descriptions of the circumstances and nuances of each relationship. The mystery in this one surrounds a series of deaths that occur during the staging of play that is central to the naming the Queen’s successor. There is intrigue and madness over flowers and alchemy and gruesome deaths, sort of like CSI:Renaissance. I only wish that there were more stories in this series.

Ok, there are no dolts in this entry. I was going to write about the campaigner who came to the house this evening (the first time that's ever happened to me), but you know where *that* would go, but I liked the title and didn't run into anyone else dolt-like today, so there you go.