A small but evocative collection of Japan pictures is up on my website, if anyone cares to wander over and take a look. A few more are coming, and some other photos. And now that the site is in my hands (it used to belong to my publisher) I have all sorts of plans: what-I’m-reading lists, updates in case people want to follow the process of bringing ABSENT FRIENDS from manuscript to book, who knows what all else. I just have to keep being nice to my webmaster, which is not hard because of how nice a guy he is. (KS, you reading this?)

Meanwhile Hurricane Isabel has brought us no rain yet, but some truly impressive wind. Trees bending, stop signs shivering. Everyone’s rushing home; rain’s supposed to start right around now, but I don’t see it yet.

And speaking of wind, I was on a jobsite today (yes, I still, barely, have a day job) in a meeting with the most nasty, aggressive gasbag contractor who ever trod the earth. Even his partner seemed sick of him. This is one of those people whose entire argument consists of, “That’s ridiculous,” and “That’s YOUR opinion,” shouted louder and louder and accompanied by the tossing of papers on the table, as he tries, for the record, to set everyone else in the room up as the cause for delays so he can file a claim against the client later. It’s all a jockeying-for-position act, in a way, and I’ve been doing this for twenty years, but I don’t have the energy to play anymore. I came thisclose to interrupting him, pointing out that he was an asshole, and asking his partner if he might please do the talking for awhile to give us all a break.