Well, okay, it’s actually fall and I’m still on vacation doing stuff. So do you want to hear about it or what? I arrived in Pittsburgh and was amazed to discover sunny skies!! This was strange and unsettling. Normally when I visit here it rains and snows and does other inclement things on a pretty regular basis. But here it is, late Wednsday, and it’s still nice! I hear that this is the best time of year in this neck of the woods. And it really is wooded here – I have seen deer (both dead and alive), lots of squirrels, and am keeping an eye out for wild turkeys. Yesterday we went to Nemacolin, a spa and resort about two hours away from Pittsburgh. It was built by Joe Hardy, the founder of 84 Lumber, a big business here in PA. It’s a lovely place, not very busy, but very posh. We had massages and pedicures – very indulgent and pleasant! Then last night we attended the opening of the Pittsburgh Speaker Series and got to see and hear Henry Kissinger. We had a thrilling time before the talking even started, as our seats were open so we had to tussle with a bunch of public-television watching geeks for good seats up front that were still open a couple of minutes before the thing started. See, they let people (like us) waiting in line basically rush forward seizing whatever vacant seats are left. Luckily my brother-in-law is tall and shameless and hustled right up to the front and snagged us good seats (which my sister and I nearly lost when we paused and didn’t want to disrupt this old guy (who, it turned out was trying to save a seat for someone in line behind us, the old devil!) – but in the end we shoved him aside and sat down). Anyway – Kissinger was great, and still very sharp and well informed. His take on Iraq was interesting; I’m not saying I agreed with him, but he made a good case for supporting the invasion. He has a very long view of history, something I think many people today are missing. He talked about Nixon and Vietnam as well, and is not at all apologetic – he’s a pretty thick-skinned fella. We came home in time to catch some of the vice presidential debate, and I pondered how our current sturm und drang will be viewed in 30 years.

Pics here.