The rain is back, but it's a stranger to me again. It makes odd noises at odd times. I was up several times in the night, turning on the porch light and opening the front door, because I was sure a deer (or something else?) was eating the flowers in the planter box on the porch. It was the rain falling on the leaves. I threw open the blinds this morning because it sounded as if a helicopter was landing on the roof. It was rain rolling off the eaves.

This change in the weather such a novelty that I have to remind myself that I'm supposed to be working, not staring out at the birds playing in the rain, and the last of the leaves blowing off the birches. It's more mesmerizing than anything I've seen on television lately, even the latest Ashcroft pronouncement. Even a Christina Aguilera video. Even Roger Clemens throwing fastballs up and in.

Is there anything sweeter than an unexpected nap in the middle of the day? I mean, when you really, really need one? I crawled up into the loft this afternoon for a break, and before I even knew how tired I was, I was seriously unconscious. It was a profound sleep, but a brief one. It only took half an hour out of my work day, but it helped me keep going, so it was definitely not a waste of time.

It's a good thing quarterly payroll reports only come up every three months. For one thing, they'd have to come up with a new name for them. For another, ow! My back! I spent one last day hunched over the ancient Selectric today, typing names and numbers in those little boxes.

So much of what we do is electronic, and yet there are these vestiges of another era, when you actually had to know what you were doing, and what it meant. Now all you usually have to know is what goes where. Filling out these state forms is like doing long division with a pencil and paper (and a nice, big eraser) while everyone else is using a calculator.

With one day left, I've finished all the taxes and reports that have to be filed by tomorrow. I always do get them ready on time, somehow. Next time maybe I should just plan to do them all right before the deadline, instead of fretting about them all month and then doing them at the deadline anyway. Then I wouldn't have to feel guilty or panicky until the last minute.

World Series notes: Instead of being hammered by the Fox announcers, I listened to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan call the game on ESPN Radio. What a difference! It was pure baseball, instead of pure hype. I felt like an insider, instead of a consumer.

The only problem was that the picture I was getting from the satellite was about five seconds behind the sound from the radio. It took some getting used to, but at least I had advance warning of anything I should pay close attention to (which gave me the chance to concentrate on my jambalaya recipe (out of the Zatarain's box) between pitches (serves six, wanna come over?)).

"There's a long drive!" I look up and, sure enough, there's a long drive. It doesn't matter that it happened five seconds earlier.

As badly as the Diamondbacks seemed to be playing (overwhelmed by Yankee Stadium, maybe?), they still lost by only 2-1. They were definitely overmatched by Yankee pitching, getting a liberal dose of their own special brand of patent medicine. Pitching is the art of keeping hitters off-balance, but sometimes it's just a matter of throwing the ball so hard the hitters can't even see it. That makes it almost impossible to hit. And that's how all three games have been won (and lost) so far in the Series.