It’s been a tough week, fire-wise. That gas line explosion out in San Bruno looks pretty scary. Vernon, I hope you’re OK out there. And now it appears that the wind fueled wildfires out in Colorado may sweep through Boulder. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Best of luck to everybody.

A federal judge has ruled that the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy is unconstitutional. Well, duh. My one question is, nobody’s figured this out before now?

The NFL season officially got under way last night, with the Saints beating the Vikings. Say what you want about Brett Favre, but, on behalf of all us Walter Mitty geezer types, I have to say there must be a little part of you that enjoys seeing the old guy out there playing. Since he’s already broken George Blanda’s interception record, you have to wonder if he’ll go ahead and switch to placekicker when he can no longer manage at QB.

Irish Fest begins today here. Why September? No idea. But it’s a time when those of Irish descent can gather and drink beer (as opposed to, oh, every other weekend of the year). Unless you happen to be an Irishman that gets high blood pressure from drinking beer, and you’re hoping to outlive your lovable but short-lived forebears. Then you have to content yourself with sobriety.

In order to watch the SU game tomorrow, I was forced to add the DirecTV SportsPack. In order to help mitigate the cost, I dropped the HD Extra package. I’m looking at other ways to save money as well. For instance, with True Blood ending on Sunday, I thought about dropping HBO. But then Bill Maher starts up again in a week or so, and of course the new Steve Buscemi show starts this month, too. I could drop Showtime, but I like Weeds and The Big C, and Dexter will start again soon, too. So, not much I can do there. Sucks to have to pay so much money for what amounts to a handful of shows, and I’m not really watching as much teevee these days anyway (have I mentioned I’m really digging the Kindle), but well, whattya gonna do? Maybe when I move I can make some changes.

Oh well, time to get this very long four-day week over with.