Raking leaves

and reading poetry (Wesley McNair, Stuart Kestenbaum, a collection by 4 local women poets), beginning Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between the World and Me, making potato-leek soup, buying Ella more food, snacks and crispy duck (like duck jerky), trying to find a local store that sells mattress toppers and sleeping with my camping air mattress under the sheet on top of the futon in the meantime, thinking about letting my hair grow long(er), vacuuming and vacuuming and vacuuming up dog hair, dead leaves and wood shavings (tracked up from the cellar by David from the beautiful skin-on-frame kayak David has made for me; skin to go on in the spring), adding leaves to and turning the compost bins, and always, morning (and often afternoon and/or evening) walks with Ella.  This weekend:

Down at the pier on Saturday morning, all the boats except this one had been pulled from the water.  The next morning, all these floating docks had all been pulled out of the water, too, and stacked up on shore.  Now the pier is just ... the pier.  Until next spring.  Then maybe I'll rent a dingy space on the floating docks for my little wooden boat.  And I can walk down to the pier, jump in the boat, and row / sail off into the blue... In the meantime... considering 

The machinations of human beings.  We shout.  We rail.  We murder one another.  We watch children starve with food in our grocery stores, warehouses and refrigerators.  We let people die of disease with drugs to cure them on the shelf.  We lay on our air mattresses and don't know the names of those who sleep on the street, in our own town. Who are we?  Why are we?  

But the Mets are in the World Series, so all is not completely wrong with the world.  My grandson turns 9 on Halloween.  And locally we can help bats, talk death, learn consciousness or serve dogs:

Help Set a World Record and Do Good for Maine Bats, Sat., Oct. 31, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Maine Coastal Islands NWR Visitor Center in Rockland is one of many host sites across U.S. & Canada trying to build 5,000 bat houses in a day. Call for a time slot to assemble a kit: 594-0600, ext. 5. 

Rockland South End Death Cafe, 4-6 p.m., Sail, Power & Steam Museum, Rockland. Eat cake, talk about death. Not a bereavement session, therapy or grief support. Donations welcome. RSVP: 701-7627. FMI: Death Cafe.com.

Class on Theta Consciousness, 1-4 p.m., Belfast Dance Studio. Led by Deborah Knight Eaton, author of “Going Deep: My Transcendent Journey into Theta Consciousness,” on sale at Coyote Moon, Belfast Co-op, Amazon. $45. FMI: 338-1424, ThetaPatterning@gmail.com.

Dogtoberfest at The Animal House, Fri., Oct. 30, 4-6 p.m., 15 Coastal Market Dr., Damariscotta. Dog beer and sausages will be served. FMI: 563-5595.

Me, I vote for Dogtoberferst.  Ella does, too.

Peace.