Yesterday after lunch I had a delightful walk by myself, through streets strewn with leaves and warm autumn sunshine. I wandered to the White Elephant Children’s Hospital resale shop and found some treasures, including a hardback copy of “My Other Life,” by Paul Theroux, for 50 cents. It’s arguably my favorite novel by him.

Andy and I made a wonderful dinner consisting of broiled jerk chicken, steamed carrots, and warmed crusty roasted red potato & rosemary bread. Accompanied by a delicious red Spanish wine and Shostokovich string quartet. Damn near felt like a Woody Allen movie. So “grown up.”

Then we watched two rather disappointing Halloween flicks. Specialty Video was picked over, so I rented what we could. First off was “The Masque of the Red Death,” directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. Very stylish, pretty good script. Not scary though. Next up was “The Howling,” directed by Joe Dante. I know it’s a cult movie, but … I just think it’s mostly dumb. It should’ve been done as a farcical comedy. Then it could have worked. The best things about it were the cameos by Roger Corman and John Sayles, and Dick Miller’s hilarious turn as an anything-for-a-buck occult bookshop owner.

I think that this upcoming weekend could bring the finish of a new draft of the novel. If only I can come up with enough inspiration for the last page. I’m close. I’ll be watching my dreams this week. That’s where the best ideas come from: the subconscious. I need that ending.

At the moment I’m sick of politics. I really am. Maybe I’ll dig into the whole topic a bit later today. Still daydreaming about Canada.