September Sunday

Well, I give in. I’ve decided to do what I insisted I wouldn’t, and turn the blog into more of a diary. I can’t imagine what could be more dull than a series of “what I did today” entries (as least as pertaining to my particular life!), but it’s driving me crazy that the blog just sits there awaiting pearls of wisdom that never materialize. I don’t know why I should care that the blog is ignored, but I do. It’s out there. People keep checking it to see what I’ve written. Well, maybe this will cure you all of that!

For that matter, I probably won’t even be able to keep this up. We’ll see what happens.

All right, then. Today was fall perfection. I’m thrilled to pieces that summer is over, especially this past summer, which pounded us with a strangling heat that felt like something you could actually reach out and grab a handful of. Today the sun blazed with a much more benign warmth, something you could walk in without breaking a sweat, something to soak up with comfort and joy.

It was the sort of day where I did a little of this, a little of that, and then a little of several other things, as well. I grocery shopped, taking along my reusable bags, but ran into a checker who seemed to think that at least half the items I was purchasing needed to go into plastic bags before being placed into my reusable bags. Meat I can understand. I do like the meat in a plastic bag. But eggs? Orange juice that was already in a plastic jug? Kleenex?? When I requested that she not do this, she seemed annoyed that I would want my juice cuddling up next to my eggs without the benefit of prophylactics.

I intended to do quite a thorough houseclean but ran out of enthusiasm a lot sooner than I might have hoped. My living room looks great, though!

I did a little work but one of the people on the recording I was transcribing seemed to speak not so much English as Random Meaningless Syllables. I tried to make them into English words, but it was like trying to make Hindi be Tagalog. Just wasn’t happening. So I abandoned that after awhile, too, although like the housework, it will still be waiting for me tomorrow.

The activity which held my attention the longest today was looking through a large box full of old photo albums -- some very old indeed -- which I recently inherited from my downsizing parents. There was a scrapbook made by my paternal grandfather on his return home from the First World War. It is telling that a good deal of the scrapbook consists of concert programs. My grandfather was a musician, a wonderful pianist. His book has programs from concerts at military bases, concerts in towns he was in, concerts where he played and concerts where he was in the audience. All of these programs are annotated. Each performance has a brief critique beside it. This amused me very much, because my father has also always done this. Whether it was a concert at my high school or a professional symphony performance, he rated every number. I often do this, too, and now I know it’s quite the family tradition!

So there it is, a September Sunday in the life of Grammar Moses. Happy fall, everybody!