Update

We've had several days of bright, clear skies, but new weather must be moving in. Today it's partly cloudy. We have some snow, which is staying on the ground now, making the slopes along the freeway mostly white.

Patrick and I had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. The day after, we drove south along the Mississippi. We saw an adult bald eagle flying over the river in St. Paul, its white head and tail brilliant in the sunlight. Farther south, we saw a redtailed hawk hunting along the highway; and another hawk -- not a redtail -- sitting on a phone line and teetering.

We stopped in a gallery we really like in Pepin, Wisconsin, and Pat bought my Christmas present.

We've been taking a look at our next year budget at work, since the economy does not look good. My position will be cut to three days a week, which will mean more time for writing. I've done my own personal budget, and I can get by.

Other than that, I'm watching the world economy collapse. It's like a slow motion landslide or avalanche. There's a fall, then a moment or two of settling, then another slow shifting of the terrain and another slide down.

This is an amazing situation. The world has huge problems, which require the mobilizing of huge resources -- global warming, environmental degredation, the abject poverty of billions of people, the need to create a sustainable world economy... and somehow, we have managed to take the wealth of the planet and put it into mountains of bad paper, which are even now collapsing...

And we are pouring gigantic amounts of money into bankrupt banks to try and keep the mountains of bad paper standing...

I think I'm beginning to mix metaphors.