Living In the World, Not on It

October And the trees are stripped bare Of all they wear What do I care October And kingdoms rise And kingdoms fall But you go on... and on... I always loved this song, even before I loved the month of October. I'm envious of my father for having a birthday in October. I have never been crazy about having my birthday in the dead of winter. I don't mind it being in January, I just mind that it is in the winter. If I'd been growing up in Australia or New Zealand, it would have been wonderful to have it in January, as that is the summer for there! Now that I love October so much, this is just that much more fitting. The leaves, the weather, the perfection of crisp, cool air and electric blue skies and the swirling breezes that bring the brightly painted leaves down to the ground are incredible. The sights, the sounds, the odors all delight the senses. I will always love the colours and brilliance that is the middle month of autumn. The most wonderful time of the year is Octobe...

A week from today it will be Samhain, the Wiccan New Year. I happen to love Samhain. It is a fun holiday for Wiccans now, not the scary thing it used to be when Druids or those masquerading as Druids (history is unclear on this) did human sacrifices to the Oak King on Samhain. I think the Gaels of the 8th century were afraid of the Oak King, who was said to eat children, and so made a sacrifice each New Year of a child who hadn't reached his 8th year. The reason for that was at 8 years old, a child took on his or her "name" that he or she would be called for life. Up until that time, they usually had descriptive nicknames that served as their names until they reached adulthood and so had the right to select a name for themselves. Once that occurred, they were "safe" from being sacrificed to the Oak King. We don't believe that now. And most Wiccans were not ones for human or animal sacrifice for any reason. It's one thing to kill animals for the food, the...

Ok, Saturday was really my first vacation day. I stopped working on Friday night and even though it was my rotation night on Saturday, that is not work, it's... fun. It's a break from regular life. I made no life or death decisions and Bob and I had fun on both of our calls. It was all good. But today the weekend is over and the workweek is in progress and so I am home alone. The weather - and I have discoursed a'plenty on how affected by the weather I am - is terrible. It was overcast this morning but around 11h00 it ceased to just be overcast and began raining in earnest. And my friend that I thought would call about going out to breakfast did not call. So I was in bed until noon watching "Grey's Anatomy" (the second season) and then I got up, went to the sun room (which is dark and dreary and watched more of "Grey's Anatomy". It's an excellent show. I love the actors, the medical stuff and they make you think... Like the Christmas episode ...

Today was another good day, and no, I did not fall or in any way injure myself - event better. We spent the morning watching our shows that we both like, reading, enjoying each other, and then wandered over to my parents' house around 13h00 to close up the pool. The whole thing was so easy and painless and not at all like all the years past. It went so smoothly! It also helped that Luis and Ma helped with putting the tarp on. (Can you believe this? I have managed to post something every single day this month so far! That is a miracle. Next weekend should be interesting. Ray's family is coming up to have reunion (yikes!) and so I will see my cousins Dawn and David and my Aunt Phyllis and her husband and my Uncle Bob and his wife. Bob is 19 years older than Ray if you can imagine, so he is 80 or just 81 and Ray will be 62 the end of this month. I will be taking a lot of pictures and writing heaps about this! But this month, like October of last year, will have plenty to write ab...

This post came enormously close to being entitled "An Evening in the Bear Mountain Infirmary"! Happily, it did not. Luis and I had an enjoyable morning hanging 'round the house, then got up (finally), showered, and headed briefly to his office to see what the renovations were looking like. Well, his office really won't be usable tomorrow unless more work was done over the past day, but it is smaller and the front will be a tight cubicle space for someone but it is what it is. We were there maybe 20 minutes. And then it was off to Bear Mountain. By the time we got there, sometime after 15h00, the weather, so typical for New Jersey and by proximaty, New York, had gone from cold and overcast to cool and not so clear, and then it became gorgeous with totally clear blue skies! It was still cool, but I prefer cool and the three shirts made it better. One short sleeved shirt under a light long sleeved shirt with a heavy swearshirt and I was ready! They had the Oktoberfest go...

Well, the astronomical autumn has been here since 23 September, really. But I mean the actual season. The trees in the park along the walkway are red. And they are not turning into the brilliant red that makes them so wonderful and bright but rather just a brownish red that is too dry and falling off the trees too quickly. It is a little - well, a lot - disappointing. I may be wrong and I hope I am but winter may be coming to the Northeast a little too soon. On the other hand, it is not yet peak season and so the leaves may surprise me and become incredible beacons of bright colours that will light up the landscape and make it all a wonderland. In the workplace, I was VERY disappointed at how few people noticed my hair cut! Even Kevin, normally a very observant person, hadn't said anything. Fran was the first to notice and say something. But oddly enough, a lot of people got haircuts over the weekend. Mitch, Kevin and someone else - oh, yes, Chef - got haircuts over the weekend. I ...

I love October! My favourite month, finally, has arrived! It blew in just now, while I was downloading music and ripping CDs and generally drowsing and marking music as best as I could all at the same time. I looked up and realised that September 2006 has passed and now, wondefully, it is now October. The best time of the year! I need to change all the calendars and then I shall return. OK. This month is going to be jam-packed with stuff... Every weekend has at least one booked day. This weekend will be Luis being home and helping Ray close the pool. Next weekend I am on call on Saturday night and then we shall see what Saturday brings, so that I can figure out if Sunday will be a day to do anything - or just recover from the night before. After that I will be in the wilds of New Hampshire, at the Pumpkin Festival. And the weekend following will be our annual trip to Atlantic City with Ray to play craps and see the ocean (which I have not seen at all this year!). That will be 28 Octobe...