Sometimes I sit and think. Sometimes I just sit.

With a strong, cool breeze and the temperature in the mid-40s, we need a fire in the stove this morning.

The birds and squirrels will eat as much bird seed as I offer. Our five feeders can hold about 40 pounds of seed and that can be gone in a day. Last weekend, I picked up some of Dave's private blend that includes the sweet smell of cherry bits. The seed is just about gone. Dave's feed doesn't seem to attract new birds, but makes the regular visitors happier.

I was able to get to Dave's because it was time for my annual trek back to my alma mater. The school has quite a few brand-name graduates. This year's commencement speaker was Patrick Fitzgerald, '82, the special prosecutor who brought the case against Scooter Libby.My work was off to the side, in a quiet room near one of the school's several chapels. As a result, I wasn't able to go to any of the other campus events, missing the opportunity to hear other alums and faculty, including one of my thesis advisers. Nevertheless, I was where I needed to be.

Yesterday, I attended an orientation session for the Stress Reduction program at the UMass Medical School. Since its inception in 1979, more than 16,000 people have gone through the program, including my mother, Jan, and friend Dan. Bill Moyers reported on the program in his 1993 report, "Healing and the Mind," and in this interview in Psychology Today. In brief, with the practice of meditation and the principle of mindfulness, one can learn new ways of understanding stress and the thoughts that accompany it.

The course starts in two weeks. The leader told us that we should plan for 45 minutes to an hour of homework every day. She also said that, because of other participants' allergies, we should not use perfume, deodorants, or after-shave lotions. No deodorant in the summer? We'll see how good an idea this is.

Oh, and there were Republicans on TV last night, 10 white guys incapable of answering a yes/no question with a yes or no. By the way, Gov. Romney, it's unalienable, not inalienable.

Canada's got a pretty good approach to this form of air pollution. You can't start campaigning until an election is officially called, giving you somewhere between 36 and 55 days in a federal election.

One more thing to frost your mini-wheats: Sen. Lynne Cheney, R-Wyoming?
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