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Quote of the Moment

Famous last words? Lemme think here. All right, here we go. Ummm...Never have I waltzed to 'My Country 'Tis Of Thee,' nor met anyone who did. Still, it's a waltz, for it's written in waltz time.

Come to think of it, "Star Spangled Banner" is in waltz time as well. But "My Country 'Tis of Thee" has a beat that's kind of hard to hear--is it still a waltz? Still I think it would be a good national anthem as well...

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Lamp of the Moment
Most interesting idea for a lamp I've seen for a while...it slumps over when the room is empty, and stands and lights itself when it senses people...I don't know how well people sensor work these days though...

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Ramble of the Moment
(Yesterday's rambling brought in some gratifying (and relatively unsolicited) feedback, and that made me think I should write more often. It might spruce up kisrael a bit, get away from the found-links-and-quotes grind, make it that much more personal. (Though I still think of finding and archiving good quotes as my own pseudo-spiritual "mission") I don't want to force it, but usually I have one or two themes percolating in my hindbrain over the course of a couple days, so that might make good ramble fodder.)

So, today's the first day of Autumn. Always a melancholy time for me; nature going into its annual coma, the unnerving number of relatives I've had pass away this time of year. But it's a good time to look back at the summer preceding it.

A few weeks ago, my UU church had an "end of summer" service, marking the start of its regular season. (Over the summer, attendance is way down, and the lay ministry takes over running the meetings, and so far I think I like that better than the Autumn crowds...) They have a nice tradition of asking people to bring back water that represents their summer activities, then they put all the water together in a special container (for use in ceremonies throughout the year) and read off all the descriptions people gave. There were quite a few "Arlington tapwater"s, of course, but also water from a wide variety of places, including a few "water from Hurricane Charley"s. If I had known about the tradition, maybe I would've grabbed some Lake Erie from my trip back to Cleveland, but instead I realized the right choice was...Aquafina.

CVS sells 12 packs of the stuff for three or four bucks, and for some reason I wasn't like liking (sarcastic proofreading via EB) the tapwater in my new apartment, though I was fine with the stuff back in Waltham. And so buying Aquafina has become a bit of a ritual for me, and I guess it represents my efforts to regain my balance and set up a base for my new life as much as anything.

It was the summer of Aquafina. I got my new place, got my new car, visited the old hometown, reconnected with some old friends, my mom got to move back to finally be within just-drop-in distance of her sister and of me, got my teeh whitened, even started dating a bit again...it wasn't so bad.

Of course, there's still a lot of clutter there, emotional and otherwise, just like I haven't quite figured out the best way of getting rid of the empty bottles so they stack up a bit. Still, I have a lot to be grateful for, and even though we're entering that dark time of year, I'm pretty happy and I think that I've regained my equilibrium to a large degree.