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I’m not sure if this one will go anywhere, but we’ll see. Does it need to? I don’t think so. Was sitting out this morning under the gray and lowering sky and it’s been raining on and off and they’re expecting more rain today. Like an 85% chance, which is good. My little pond in the alley isn’t big yet, but it’s enough that I saw a bigger dog’s footprint in the mud next to it. I watched a flock of birds go over and I thought that they didn’t care if the Texas Rangers won the pennant last night, or about the happenings in the Middle East, and they don’t have other birds bullying them to have opinions on things that don’t concern them. Merle (our dog) sniffed around but he doesn’t really like inclement weather, the effects or results of it, at all. That’s his politics.

Danielle and I have been continuing our Thursday daytrips, but last Thursday we just ran over to Coleman to say hi to a few people and have a couple of drinks. Speaking of daytrips, according to the KERA website, on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. the PBS show The Daytripper will air the episode that was filmed in Brownwood, and I’m pretty sure I’m in it. I mean, I’m in the promotional pics they sent out, so check it out. If you’re from somewhere else, just do a search on the PBS website for your local schedule.

Someone asked me, “Do they pay you to work so hard ‘advertising’ for Downtown Brownwood?” Well, let me say that I’m not ‘advertising.’ I just write about my life and what I think, and I’m a huge advocate of small, locally owned businesses, entrepreneurship, and the old American and Texas values of independence and hard work. America is in peril, globalization is a moral and cultural disaster, and re-localization is the antidote. I also advocate reading, learning about logic and reason, free speech, and thinking – but I wouldn’t say I ‘advertise’ for those things. So no, I don’t get paid for any advocacy or interest I write about. I have heard – and this could be right or wrong, I have no idea – that there are people who get paid (bloggers and ‘influencers’) for writing about these things. Maybe even here in Brownwood. I don’t know. But I’ve not only never been paid, but other than some few thanks on social media posts from a couple of the local businesses, I’ve never been contacted or thanked or even spoken to by anyone who works for the city or for the Downtown Business agencies or organizations. Not even a head nod. I may be like the pigeons flying overhead to them. I don’t get offered free drinks, free food, or discounts. I don’t get tickets to things. Those PBS Daytripper guys got all kinds of freebies when they were here. Some bloggers got a guided tour by city officials. I get it. I’m just a guy who writes things expecting no one to read them. It’s not a great gig if you’re doing it expecting anything. I mean, a cup of coffee or a head nod would be nice, but I’m not the complaining type. I’m like those pigeons flying over only I write about what I notice. Writing about thinking and noticing is a buggy whip business.

It’s almost the end of October and when we walked back to the apartment the other day, crossing by the courthouse, we saw the leaves, some brown and yellow, blowing into the street. It wasn’t hot or cold, but the cold nights and mornings are coming… and a World Series that those pigeons don’t care about.

Y’all have a great rest of the week.

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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear periodically on the website.