We had a long day of downpour--rain sluicing from stones, puddling the grass, hissing against the windowpanes. I couldn't have asked for better weather. I froze a bushel of kale, watched the Bruins lose a hockey game, read Shadow Country, folded shirts . . . and all the while the rain spattered and sang, and the garden sighed.

Meanwhile, the other householders were distracted by saws: Tom spent so much time trying to fix a broken switch on his new table saw that he never got started on the tiling (which also involves a saw). Paul acquired a fancy new arborist's saw (for canoe trips) and enthusiastically pruned some trees in the rain. I myself did not saw anything.

Today we'll have sun and coolish temperatures. I need to grocery-shop and clean bathrooms and do some other boring things. None of it will involve sawing. I leave that to the experts.