Sorry if you’ve been looking for the blog the last few days. Our server host sent an email at the beginning of the week to say they had to perform emergency upgrades and that they needed to take us offline, hopefully only for a limited time. That continued off and on for the last several days, culminating with Rudi needing to do maintenance work to get the blogs reestablished in the public domain. Irksome, but hopefully now behind us.

Here are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. With the return to standard time, buildings are now lit up at the end of the day. As I’m about to head out, I glance across the street and notice, four stories below, a fellow practicing the violin alone by his office window, fingers flying and bow flourishing.

2. The leaves are finally dropping here in greater quantities. I crunch through yellowed gingko leaves atop the brick sidewalk down the block and, closer to the metro station, kick planetree leaves the size of plates down the street like a rock.

3. A late game start means only five players on our volleyball team show up. After we beat our opponent, we opt to remain in the gym to scrimmage among ourselves, three against two. The final serve of the night is called, the group opposite us sets up their biggest hitter, and I time my jump perfectly to block his spike back down onto their side. It is a remarkably satisfying way to end the workout.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?