My neighbor Mary Alice once said to Maria that "your mother can get along with anyone" a really nice compliment and in most cases true (we won't mention Barry at Kosco). My friends can vary from Ginny that sends me e-mails of internet interest. The last one was "called caterpiller seen in dormitory" and it was a picture of four or five guys on top of each other- , mooning, with their legs sticking out - it did look like a caterpiller. Timmy's sister Meg also is an e-mailer. The last one was Halloween Costumes that are just wrong - and they were so tasteless (and funny) that I can't discuss them. Then I have a friend Crissy with whom I can have a lengthy discussion on how difficult it is for women to pee in the woods, "you always end up wetting your shoes". I know people that you can have a political conversation with, both Democrats and Republicans, but I had a hard time last year with anyone thinking McCain was the choice. And all my neighbors and I can go on about living in Tivoli and how good it used to be.

Then I had Margaret, who was a wonderful combination of all the above. She too could pick out the best internet jokes and send them. One last year was a woman singing about Sarah Palin, with a man playing the piano in back of her wearing a Moose Hat. "Don't speak for me Sarah Palin" in the tune of Evita. I still laugh at that. We too talked about urine, but our conversation was how asparagus affected it and the chemical reasons for the change in its odor. My last long conversation with her included discussion on the movie she had just watched about Frost and Nixon and did Nixon really think that he was above the law as President. And we talked about the book I had just read in Cape Cod "That Old Cape Magic". There was one line that had stood out to me and I repeated it to Margaret "Why does a rich country likes ours blame people who have nothing for its problems?" and we discussed how that line applied now to the health debate and who decides who gets what kind of health care. Pretty heavy stuff for our last conversation.

Picking up the Old Farmer's Almanac this morning, I realized that this varied type of information and interest is exactly what has sold the Almanac since 1792. Last night's moon was called the Full Beaver -no reference to the caterpiller please. November 8 is when black bears head to winter dens and November 20 is when skunks hibernate. Today, Election Day, is when the first dog was launched into space in Sputnik II in 1957. And even a quote from Emerson, "the sky is the daily bread of the eyes". Something for everbody and something to think about this cold autumn day. Weatherman says snow showers on Thursday and the almanac agrees using the rhyme "first its glowing, then its snowing". And hopefully, silly e-mailing is a coming.