Post #5 for Month: September

The sky is gray and the wind is -- not quite moaning but -- sighing through a small crack in my window. The mountains are dusted with a smidgen of snow on the very top, the fall leaves peaking through the ice crystals.

This month has flown by with unusual speed. I am aware that as I get older time has a tendency to slip faster and faster through the hourglass of life. But this September has been a blink of my eye, a breath coming through my lips, a syllable, just short of a sigh.

Ben and I are engaged in the annual semester sprint to the the finish line. This year it started earlier than usual. But I think we're getting better at running it. This is not necessarily a virtue for the future, but for the present it's what it is. Monday, in an attempt to have a family moment, we put the kids in the car, picked up some ice cream and drove up the canyon to enjoy the fall foliage.

I forget that not everyone lives right next to spectacular mountains that spire up into the blue blue sky. Fall in the East is a slow burn starting sometime in October and spreading slowly down south with it's splendid colors through the month of November and I loved it dearly. Fall here in the Rocky Mountains can be a flash in the pan, here then gone. A damp and wet Spring, like the one we had this year, usually brings out vivid brilliant color. This year is no exception.

Everyone happily finishing up their Oreo shakes, we turned onto the road that travels up through the mountains. I looked up my eyes straining for the top. There are so many things one can worry about. So many things to become tired with and of and several other prepositions, I'm sure. But just then, anything that might have been on my mind was consumed as my eyes kindled with the brightness peaking through the evergreen trees. The glorious colors took flight inside me and suddenly I was blazing up through the trees on fire with the leaves, consumed in rich color almost too bold and glorious to behold.

It was hard to come back down again, but the descent was just as wonderful.

A Kitchen Update Without Pictures

I've started putting up the back splash. White subway tile. That's 3 x 6, a rectangular tile. It looks nice with the black counter tops. And the wood planks for my floor are sitting in my living room acclimatizing. They will be installed next week.

Things are moving along. Sort of like molasses. But I've always like molasses, so we're good.

Pictures forthcoming. Promise.

Dear New York

I've been re-reading old posts from the beginning of this blog which I started back in the day (2006) not quite a year after we had moved from Utah to Westchester, New York. I've been reading the old comments made by friends and neighbors who lived by me. I have a real affection for those people. New York wasn't easy. But it was great. I sometimes dream about moving back. That's a long shot, and many of my friends from that time have moved to other far-away places as well.

You can't ever go back. But it's nice to be able to remember.

A Last Hurrah

Blogger spell check does not recognize Hurrah as a word. Which is a problem since last night we had a last hurrah.

My family went swimming at the community pool before it closes for impending Fall and Winter and Spring weather. There was much jumping, shrieking, laughing and splashing. And much sitting in the shallow water by the moms watching their small ones and talking.

After getting home late, the kids slept in. And they have only just arisen from said beds and now we will scurry through the house throwing on clothes and tossing down breakfasts and running out the door as fast as we can. We won't drive as fast as we can because then I might get a ticket and that would be a big bummer.

Last hurrahs are fun and good. Everyone should have them.

Saturday: First Hurrah. Football season starts. {!}

A September Post. Not Really.

I planned to welcome in September with a glorious-to-behold-and-read blog post.

Alas.

It was not to be.

There have been plenty of comings and goings.

And things to think and write about it.

But this morning nothing is percolating in my head.

Believe me I have tried numerous times to get some semblance of a post out and this is all I have for the moment.

I could complain about the awful pollution hanging out in our valley. Pollution that is actually obscuring mountains that I can usually see quite clearly.

I'm ready for a little bit of rain.

Come on, rain!

And there you go.