It was one of those heavy, gray days, and the weight of it seemed all around me, pushing me in toward myself. All I could do was sneak upstairs for a quick nap this afternoon. I didn't spend more than twenty minutes, but it was lovely. When I let myself invite sleep in, and I know it's coming, and then it washes over me like a warm bath— why, that's one of life's sweetest pleasures.

Why I can't do that at night, at the assigned time for such things, I don't really know. I don't fight sleep at night as much as I fight giving up being awake and active. When it's time to retire, I can always think of one more thing I have to do, and then one more after that. Sometimes it's one more page I have to read, or one more chapter. One more song I have to listen to. And then, as I said, one more.

To get my nap in, I took advantage of a quiet day. Quiet in two senses. The Boss was sorry (this is my interpretation) for the runaround he gave me all day yesterday and left me alone. (Anyway, he left me alone, whatever the reason.) I still had work to do, and I did it, but the phone was quiet and I could find twenty minutes of peace that I needed so badly.

Quiet also because I turned off all the sounds I usually have surrounding me as I work. No television, no stereo, no Americana satellite channel, not even the news on the radio. Just the sounds of humming appliances and traffic on the road out the bedroom window. It seemed right on a dull, sunless day to listen to the music of the earth turning, without the usual interference.

As far as I'm concerned, a political candidate can't be too liberal. That's because there will always be people like our current president who come out of right field and weasel their way into power, one way or another. In his case, another. That's why I make no apology for voting the Green ticket for the statewide offices up for grabs in California next month.

There might be some exceptions, but I've been impressed with the Green candidates I've investigated. While the major party politicos have been fine tuning their insider connections, most of the Greens have been organizing, demonstrating, fighting for social justice and serving their fellow humans. Instead of talking to the people with the most money, they've been listening to the ones with the least.

One incumbent I have no hesitancy about supporting is my Congresswoman, Lynn Woolsey (a Democrat), who has been a leader of the antiwar interests in Washington. I've been disappointed in some of the words and some of the votes coming out of this Congress, but Lynn Woolsey hasn't let me down yet, and I'm proud to cast another vote for her.

After putting it off for nearly a month, I went through my absentee ballot and tried to make sense of it today. Some of it is still murky. The wrong people are on the right side of some measures, and I'll have to look into the reason. The reason is probably that I'm missing something. That explanation is easier to swallow than the idea that I'm smarter than everybody. That notion is too out there to contemplate.

There aren't any hot social issues on this ballot, as there have been in most California elections over the past few decades. Somehow the politicians avoided a situation where they'd have to take a position on immigration or juvenile detention or domestic partnership. This time it's all about highways and after school programs, topics worth discussing but not as emotionally charged.

My ballot is about halfway ready to turn in. I have more than a week to get it in shape to mail in, and then I can sit back and proudly watch most of my candidates lose. That's been the case since I cast my first presidential vote for George McGovern in 1972.

Another advantage of listening to the World Series games on the radio, besides getting to hear the Giants' exceptional announcing crew, is that I don't have to plug my ears and cover my eyes when Fox shows its very loud and very repetitive commercials. Since I watched the first two games without benefit of radio sound, I now know those commercials well enough that I didn't even need the audio while watching game three tonight.

Maybe some people on the east coast were still watching when tonight's game (a 10-4 win by the Angels) ended at 12:09 am. Some of the players probably have family back there. It was only 9:09 pm here, and I was worn down to a nub by then, despite being a fairly passionate fan of one of the teams involved (not the one that won). So I'm sure Fox won't be happy with the ratings. (Good! Turn the baseball coverage over to someone who can do it right, like ESPN.)