When I drove into town this morning, I was in the school bus traffic and had a huge wave of nostalgia for this bygone phase of my life. I always waited with Adam for the bus this last year and would look north up Farm to Market for the lights of the bus. In the late fall and winter hours, it was often just barely light. Depositing and delivering a child onto a school bus meant several free hours...it also meant your child was still something of a child. That era is past for me now.

Later I went birding and got totally lost on gravel roads east and north of Grand Haven, but the trees were in spectacular color with dozens of variations on red, orange and yellow and green. Even in the muted cloudy near dusk light, the trees were rich and utterly lovely.

And, no, there was no wine at the 45th college reunion.

And, today Barack Obama unexpectedly won the Nobel Peace prize, immediately causing a media blitz with those who thoughtfully stated he should have refused, those who thought he was deserving and the uncivil screechers, who rant in negative way about every Obama action.

Tomorrow I am going to my 45th college reunion and mostly I am wondering if wine will be available with dinner.

Also, I would like to see the artprize winner....

I am currently reading Jim Harrison's Farmer. It is so evocative of the land in northern Michigan. It soothes me to read his prose.

I am also reading Ursula Hegi's The Vision of Emma Blau. Another good novel with great characters and sense of place and time.