I can hardly believe it. September already. Yesterday afternoon I looked out on the garden and thought “it feels like Fall”, which of course it isn’t, but with school looming for the Portland children, college football starting, a little color on our dwarf maples after a few cooler nights it just feels like the end of Summer.
along the trail to Bridal Veil Falls, Columbia Gorge, OR
With that comes my realization that I haven’t done too good a job with that ambitious summer reading plan of mine, I read just 3 of 18 (17%) of the books I intended to. Not that I usually read 18 books in a summer, but that was the hope. I have read a total so far (I’m giving myself three more weeks of “Summer”) of 15 books. A lot of them were science fiction books by Anne McCaffrey, following my reading of a tribute / biography of her. Plus I finished two short story collections. So yes, I’ve been reading, just not the books on that list, the contents of which are now on the TBR list.
That’s okay, it’s September, and the reading is easy. I’m reading the new Louise Penny novel, have a Mike Shayne novel started, a Sue Grafton partly read, a Perry Mason half done, and a couple of other things that have found their way into my “soonest” pile.
In addition I’ll be watching football (Go Ducks! Go Seahawks!), gardening, taking walks by the river and doing other relaxing, enjoyable things here in beautiful Portland. Ahhhhh.
The Broken Bullhorn 
Summer comes to a screeching halt Tuesday when I’ll be standing in front of a class of eager students. By the way, today’s NY TIMES Travel Section listed some great restaurants in Portland: Hugo’s, In’finiti Fermentation & Distillation, Grace, and Fore Street. I’m sure you’ve eaten there many times. Here in Buffalo, our famous WINGFEST just ended. Thousands of people at 40 TONS of chicken wings!
George, each year I forget you have Wingfest right before school starts. Forty tons. Wow. I hope those students are eager, and not just putting n college time because they think they have to. We have eaten at only one of those restaurants, Hugo. I thought it was good, but we like a little place named Veritable Quandry. Best baked, stuffed pork chop I’ve ever eaten!