Friday was a bright, sunny and (dare I say it) hot day. After my morning shift at the office, and before my afternoon shift from home, our little family unit met at Miller Park for the UT Vols pep rally. Fuller clapped along with the fans, we shouted V! O! L! S! because anyone who wants to play (and beat) Alabama is fine with us. I sweated as I walked from one end of downtown to the other.

(Don’t tell me that Alabama beat UT. We know that. It is in the past, get over it.)

And then on Saturday we woke up to a fall chill, with breezes and falling leaves. We found our jackets, jeans, and socks (must have socks!) to make our way to the fall festival that afternoon. Fuller wore his hat, I thanked every one who told me it was so cute.

That night when it was time to slumber, we dressed in the long PJ pants and bundled up under the covers. But the chilliness kept waking us up.

This change in the weather, this downward spiral from warm and pleasant to cold and dreary, it isn’t very pleasant this year. Usually there is the dance of the thermometer, where the mercury rises and falls to a beat of its own choosing. The dance is like a square dance with a caller who has no rhythm or rhyme, where one day you have on a turtleneck and the next you are searching for your chacos.

This year, the sqaure dance is missing and suddenly we are plunged from a day at the beach and we are searching for kindling to make a fire to keep warm.

I don’t like it. And this surprises me. Usually the square dance frustrates me, making it difficult to get dressed in the morning. I would think that I would be happy that the five day forecast calls for highs in the low 60s, meaning limited choices in the wardrobe department.

But I am somehow not thrilled by this change. Fall is beautiful, the air is crisp, but I am still missing something.

Maybe it is the sun.

Recently, I was asked, “hey D, are you working on anymore Lego movies?” This question is in reference to a Lego stop-motion animation movie called “The Luckiest Man Alive” (warning: the small version posted here is 5.2 Megs!) I made a few years ago as part of an inner-office film competition (in which I finished 2nd – by only one vote).

The short answer is, “Yes”… and “No”.

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This afternoon we spent a couple of hours with neighbors and friends to celebrate fall. It was a very cool day, complete with chilly breezes and overcast skies. Fuller started the outing being fussy, but after he had worked out his grievances by crawling all over the grounds, he was relatively happy. We exhausted him and he fell asleep in his seat on the way home.

Click the picture to get to the entire album.

I have a lot of thoughts and musings about stuff that I usually find a way to bring up at work so that me and the guys can chat about various issues. Recently however, I’ve been so busy doing actual work, I keep forgetting to mention cool stuff. And while this is probably preferable to certain co-workers (Bob), I can?t help feeling the world becomes a little poorer with each idea mentally filed away, its only hope of retrieval being my inevitable plunge into Alzheimer?s-induced delusion, perpetually reliving the late 20th Century/ Early 21st Century.

Rosebud, indeed.

Anyway, I?ve decided to bring up something in the blog that I?d normally bring up at work and see what kind of reaction I get (if any ? which would not be totally unlike work.) Again, anyway? here?s what I?ve been thinking about:

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Monday is a buzzkill. Joykiller. Bummer. Monday sucks.

We are having a case of the Mondays.

ALL WEEK.

This past weekend was awesome, like curling up in a chair and reading a great book in one sitting. The beginning paragraph was an interesting and amusing evening spent watching Caleb (sorry Fuller pulled your hair!) and the conclusion of the novella was an afternoon spent with Esther and an excellent episode of Grey?s Anatomy, where I admit I cried a tiny tear. A very tiny one.

And I went to bed, all happy from a peaceful weekend. It was a peaceful weekend where Damon was able to putter around the house. A weekend of puttering is priceless and something we don?t always get to indulge in.

When I woke up Monday (buzzkiller!), it was chilly and I was stuck trying to figure out exactly how to dress myself for the menopause of Mother Nature (the day starts out pleasant and ends up with hot flashes that we have to live in). Bonus points for an outfit that fits within the confines of business casual.

Of course I also had to figure out exactly how to extract myself from the bed where it was nice and cozy and outside of the bed was? not.

All week has been kind of frustrating, most of which I can?t or won?t blog about. All week has been a case of the Mondays, where you wish you were back at Friday evening again.

So I guess the good news is, tomorrow is Friday! And it couldn?t come any sooner.