Perfect night for sleeping in the cool, quiet Berkshire air.  I hope to hear some music this weekend at Tanglewood and then begin the slow march back to the sea in south Jersey.  I didn't hydrate enough the other day and gave myself some unusual muscle pain in my ankles and lower calves, so I think I'll not run for a few days, maybe even a week.  In part, I run because I don't want to develop an embolism from all of the driving, and in part I don't want to gain back even an ounce of the 40 pounds I lost. There is a light, boardwalk-based 5K run in few weeks and I hope to enter, if just to give myself a goal, so I can build a fitness program around that objective.

Since the Berkshires are filled with aged hippies, and form a kind of "Caucasian protection zone" for those who wish to live apart from people of color and the urban style, while professing a respect for diversity, the local radio is filled with commentary on why any perception of a poor economy is a clear sign of racism towards the current president.  In other words, shut up and accept that everything is good. The repetition serves as a kind of hypnogogic mantra and to repeat it often in as many circumstances seems to be the practice among the locals.

For example, at the local market, I heard a patron refer to the vegetables as the "Republican section" of the market, to great guffaws, and at the gas station the guy pumping next to me complained about the high prices by noting that it was because Republicans need their oil money.  In a way, it's a Manichean paradise; the locals exist in a bubble of a perpetually enforced world-view and any deviance, or any evidence that they are snobs who prefer the company of white, educated people, is met as an expression of evil.  Remarkable.

Anyway, it's time to get going.