I woke up sick yesterday, which is why I didn't write to you. I feel better now, fortunately, because I have to drive to the coast later this morning to teach an essay workshop in Rockland. Writers under discussion will include Rayfiel, Galeano, Ginzburg, Woolf, Mather, Baldwin, Doerr, and Plutarch. And, yes, the Mather on the list is Cotton Mather. In a workshop that focuses on writing about one's passions, I thought it seemed important to consider writing about something one passionately fears.

On the house front, it has been a week of inspections and appraisals. The closing date is now set, and we will be able to stay here for a month longer, until mid-November. But we still don't have a place to go after our month is out. You may find me under a bridge with Ruckus and 50 cardboard boxes filled with books.