Greetings, my fellow port-swillers!  I trust and hope that those of you on the East Coast came through the big blow safe and sound?  And by “big blow” I, of course, mean the Weather Channel’s Jim “Mimbo” Cantore who, broadcasting Friday afternoon from lower Manhattan, was practically swallowing his tongue at the thought of the approaching Perfect Storm (his words).

♦  As for our neck of the woods, there were a lot of branches down, together with a few trees.  Actually, the port-swiller residence even suffered some damage:  a large branch fell right on top of the hammock, smashing one of the wood crosspieces, and another one knocked one of the rails off the garden fence.  Somebody call the Mimbo!

♦  Dropped off the eldest gel for her first day of 8th grade at St. Rita of the Misunderstood Adolescence this morning.  It was nice that she was so organized, so eager to get out of bed and make herself some breakfast, so cheerful and excited to get to school.  We’ll see how long that lasts.

♦  You remember that bit in “300” where Leonidas kicks the Persian herald down the well?  According to Herodotus, that really happened (although the heralds, two of them, were from Darius, not Xerxes).  Later, in order to pay for the violation of international law, two Spartans volunteered to deliver themselves to the Persians to receive whatever punishment the Persians thought fit.  Xerxes (Darius had died by this time) was so impressed that he let them go free.

♦  Okay, that one was really random.

♦  How nice that summah is almost over!  It’s so pleasant this week that I am actually able to resume wearing coat and tie, much to the irritation of my colleagues.  (Living the counter-culture, man!)

♦  Speaking of which, Mrs. R recently tried a new dry-cleaners that advertises itself as using an “organic” cleaning process.  Whatever that method may be, it produces a very peculiar odor on the costume.  My instructions for the future are to go back to our old cleaners and be damned to the planet.

♦  So it turns out that our elder cat has been suffering for some time from ocular herpes, which causes the eyes to become red and cloudy and, evidently, is fairly painful.  Who knew there was such a thing?  The tramp.  The good news is that the new medicine given her by the vet seems to be clearing things up very quickly.

♦ Well, my beloved Nats have managed to lose six straight, and now have a sizable hole to fill if they want to get back to .500.  I suppose the good news is that even to be talking about .500 ball as we roll into September is to be doing far better than I ever expected this year.  Mark Robbo’s words, my fellow port-swillers:  The Nats are going to break out a lot sooner than many people might think.