Teeth

 November 8, 2026

Tooth marks in two of the pumpkins, where a bear tested them. Either not to his taste, or not softened enough to get a good bite. Bear proceeded to the pond to destroy the pump. It didn’t look destroyed, but if you pull it out of the water, the little motor quickly burns itself up. 

Robes on at church today– an inconvenience, but one which apparently encourages the congregation. The scriptures– both of which I read– were the wise and foolish virgins and Joshua admonishing his people to choose among gods. Both are problematic unless read as theater– characters speaking their lines, sensible in context, unsatisfying if taken to be universal. 

A review of JD Vance’s new and evidently hideous book led me to think of things in my past I did for praise or to gain approbation. The fact is I never completely understood the things that got me praised, nor those that got me disapproved of. They seemed to me part of a continuum, one point to me indistinguishable from another. I waited till the dust settled to decide if I had triumphed or flopped.  

Woke in at 4 AM revising my play, half in dream, half awake. The dream was about a colossal dinner party I was giving, worried that the plates were coming out too slowly and there wouldn’t be enough wine and that nobody had thought of ice.