This whole Go Big thing requires that I hang in there. And in order to hang in there, I have to stay healthy and reasonably happy. This post is going to drag you through a bad mood and out the other side.

Until this afternoon, I’ve long suffered, but never understood why the the 20 mph speed limit around schools so irritates me. Today the light bulb went on: it feels like a calculated and sadistic move on the part of bean-counting elected officials who (obviously) excelled in school and take some pleasure in rubbing it in. For the duration. Those of us who were not good at book learning are forced to relive the horror or risk points on our licenses.

This afternoon as I crawled by the local elementary school (in a car), decades of bad memories glommed into one worse-than-usual baaad feeling which forced my chest to cave in and my face to wrinkle in a wince. "See You at Back-To-School NIght!" shouted the signboard with the movable letters. As I rubbernecked, I heard the over-loud school bell in my head and boom, another light bulb went on: a lot of elementary schools actually look like prisons. This observation was confirmed by a friend who pointed out that architects who design prisons often also design schools.

I decided to take an action, change a feeling. We went to the county fair.

I read somewhere once that after a death you should treat yourself to the ultimate luxury. The death of summer seems like a bonafide death so tonight I’m cooking rice noodles, kale from the garden and fish with a fabulous coconut curry.