Veterans’ Day, leaves and music

I’m pretty sure they set the Armistice knowing it would be about the last day the doughboys could get some good raking in. It’s always our last shot. The town stops picking up leaves soon, and we’ll get socked with snow before long anyway. I’m trying not to repeat last year’s lawn disaster (Lee’s broken arm, no rakers available, all that stuff). Got out and did a couple hours of hard raking this morning until the rain just got to be too much, but with any luck we can pack up another couple of bags before the pickup. Sixty bags is not unusual for our tiny little yard. Damn you, maple trees!

My iPod seems to be in some kind of a mood. Shuffle mode keeps pushing Patty Smith, Warren Zevon, Lucy Kaplansky, Dar Williams, and a fair amount of Karen Savoca. The dark stuff, solely. The lightest music I heard this morning was The Hives, and that ain’t so light. This is a good thing, though, because otherwise I would rarely hear Patty Smith — too dark and plodding to get through an entire album unless I’m really in a mood myself, and then I don’t enjoy it, I just wallow in it.