my life

On the little joys of my life.

I attended the graduation ceremony of our SOS class yesterday morning, then came home. It was a gorgeous day, the kind of day that begs you to be outside communing with nature even if you have allergies (which I don't, but I'm just saying). The temp was roughly 80, or...I can't really tell, because there wasn't much humidity. The skies were crystal blue, everything everywhere in Alabama is green, and I was off for the day.

I'd mowed the grass last weekend, but it came out rather choppy and wavy, thanks to an unbalanced mower housing. I was in a hurry, so I didn't pause to fix the housing last weekend. Like a bad haircut, I knew it was still better than the shaggy look I'd begun with and it would grow out quickly. So yesterday morning, after a quick (late) breadfast, I resettled the mower housing, more carefully this time, raked the magnolia leaves (I swear those things actually dull my mower blades, they're so strong), picked up limbs around the yard, trimmed my edges, and mowed the grass. It was comfortable and I was happy, listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on my MP3 player. I even made a trip around the backyard fence with my poison ivy killer, as I'd noticed several strands snaking underneath from the untended jungle beyond. Then I took a nap, read a bit of the Iliad, and went to dinner.

This morning, I sat on the front porch and sipped coffee, marvelling at the clear, cool air that tells me autumn is waiting in the wings. It was just yesterday, it seems, that I came home from Iraq and pinned on captain, hit the spring semester with a fury, went to Belize, went into the summer semester, was swept up into SOS, and now the fall semester is already upon me. Where did the time go? It has been a well-invested year, no doubt. I have no regrets. But...wow.

The BX already has loads of Halloween candy piled everywhere...two months in advance. I reckon they've learned that people may pick candy up early on, thinking they'll go ahead and stock up, then munch their way through it and come buy more. Pretty smart, if you ask me.

Once the autumn is upon me, I feel as though the year is winding down in much the same way that I feel as though the workday is winding down around 4pm. I see the holidays in the offing; it's time to start making plans and gathering necessary ingredients for those special dishes. The autumn is characterized by more work, it seems, than the rest of the year, but it's more pleasurable at the same time.

The end of this year, in particular, will bring a tremendous sense of closure in one form or another. I'll know by Christmas what my professional fate will be; at least, I'll know if the Academy picked me up or not. I'll have completed my final actual classes for my master's degree and written my thesis proposal (all that will be left next semester is the thesis itself). I'll be settled into my new berth as crew commander boss, with whatever that entails. Most of the pressure that robs me of a social life will be lifted at the end of this year. 'Tis truly something to work toward.

Meanwhile, the magnolia in the front yard is dropping red-seed studded cones, the humidity is lifted, the pressures of SOS are past, and life is truly grand.

Now...back to the Iliad. Patroclus has been killed, and Achilles has gotten past his fury at Agamemnon and is about to bring hell to bear on Hector and the Trojans.

Here's hoping your day will be as good as mine.

d