I am so ready to go home. I miss everything about fall today. I miss the cool rain and the colored leaves and old truck I used to call the beast and I miss going to papa Whites place to work on some ones car and the darkness that hides along the road just off into the bushes. I want Pumpkin or pecan pie and chili. We used to have this party out at the old Kraft home place farm and have hay rides and the works, impromptu skits and bonfires and marshmallows so charred they look like a lump of coal. I miss the feeling I get when the air is cold and I smell of wood smoke from a fire place. From my child hood bedroom window on the second floor there was the valley and the hills side opposite was awash in a warm tapestry of greens and browns and oranges and reds. I miss playing in the band at school and the hours and hours of practice. I am nostalgic for it all, and I am hoping it is all going to be waiting on me when I return there in a week or two. And then I hope some thing gets to me and I’ll be ready to come home again to Texas where the best thing I can think to say about my surroundings is that “it isn’t all THAT bad.” But there is nothing that makes this place nostalgic to me in any way. Except maybe the old whole foods down; town where REI and Anthropology are now. MexiMelt and I went there one thanksgiving day and got tortilla soup and a big deal of bread for a snack while the turkey was cooking. That was nice.  And this is my background screen I look at most of the day.

and this is my little Mexican pepper!

Well it is a nice hot fall day already here in Austin.
Things from this morning. I went to the bagel shop and on my way there saw a Fj40 that I actually have looked at on line in California from TLC the foremost restorers of vintage Toyotas. These are the same guys who were trying to buy mine and I go to it before they could snag it. This FJ40 ya’ll it was beautiful and oh my lord I never wanted to car jack some one so bad in all my life.
And you know how we always think the crisp (corrected spelling today) the crisp fall air is full of smells. I think it is my smeller actually just on overdrive. A girl was walking into the building in 30 feet in front of me today and I could smell that she was wearing CK1.  A lady that I work with just walked in wearing WAY TOO MUCH of something (if you like Elizabeth Taylor’s ‘Passion’ you’ll LOVE ‘DRAMA’ the imitation version) and now my whole office smells so strong. She just walked in and left. Gross.
so my Einsteins; I had a pumpkin bagel and pumpkin shmear on it.
Dear lord it was yummy.
And I am branching out a bit the new flavor of coffee is autumn roast, Elizabeth you are going to like it I swear.
Oh and did you know that the Guy from Iron and Wine lives in Dripping Springs a tiny little town close to here? They (or He) need a better web site. pathetic.
I did not know that. Sweet. Some one else famous lives here.
And just because I am this daddy here is my peanut wearing her uggs cause you know some where in the world people close their pools this time of year and it actually gets cold enough to wear long sleeves.

Last night the harvest moon was so full and so bright I had to get up and turn the blinds the other way because the light streaming into my windows was so extremely bright.

I love the old farmer’s almanac website. It makes me want to live in the north east or at least the north.
Fall is my most favorite of all the seasons. I love the colors and the smells and cooking and what the time of year always represented for me as a kid growing up in Southwest MO.

The Ozark Mountains during this season hold an amazing array of colors. The trees are like a warm palate bouquet and the sky goes this most amazing color of blue. The grass may very well green up too just because it would feel left out being brown and dead up next to all the other amazing colors.

School starts back as well. And for me that meant that these college kids that would celebra-tize me in a way would soon all fill my parent’s home. My dad is an instructor in a small Christian college in Southern Mo. My mom (I am sorry meximelt) the best cook in the history of mankind and she seems to have a bent on all the things cooks like to cook in the fall. My favorite is a Carrot cake with a melty cream cheese icing. Not too sweet because I am her kid and I am hyper enough. And Pumpkin pie and pecan pie, fried potato’s and squash. Baked apple cake, also not very sweet with the butter and pinch of kosher salt sprinkled on the top for good measure.

Man oh man I am really feeling it now.

I love to walk out side and see the leaves that have fallen and think by raking these all into a pile I will have blisters BUT the fun I will have by jumping into them or my specialty riding my bike through them as if I were a stunt man, riding heroically through the smoke, Well worth the blisters. And when you are all damp around the temple from the running and the jumping you feel the cool breeze and you hope you don’t get a cold. So you run in and beg for some of the grown ups mulled cider!

When I grew up a smidge and had my drivers’ license I would do what my Grandpa Branham got me started doing; Going for a drive through the country side to see the beauty of nature. I would drive out t his grave and sit on the bench he had instead of a huge unusable monument. I’d sit there for a second or two and think wait I still have a living grandpa I want to spend as much time with as possible. And race the back roads to Papa Whites and soak up his company like a sponge. I am so hyper I make his blood pressure rise. Now that I am 30 I have learned to sit still and listen to stories but I think the sight of my car in his drive still kicks the blood pressure up a notch or two.

Now that I live a bazillion miles away from all of my family I want to see them more than ever. I want to throw my arm over their shoulders and beg for one more slice of pie, and one more game of washers or on more try to shoot cans on the hill across from the garden.

All of this talk has me for sure wanting t return for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas. So mom, when you read this please send me a picture of some fall foliage, and have a cup of hot cider for me. Oh and when you see Papa White next, probably at Church Sunday, give him a big tight hug and tell hi it is from me. And tell Grandmother she looks ravishing for me, and Grandma Branham. When you go this weekend to see her rub the bump on the back of her neck and say this is fro Dainer.

Oh and momma I love you too, and when I come home please promise that all the diets will be over. Lets cook good food this time ok? Like 20 years ago 1987! Like when I was 10!