Assorted Thoughts

Well, here it is Friday morning, and I suddenly remember that I'm supposed to have written a blog post. I guess I'll talk about whatever has been on my mind for the past week.

Tomorrow night we set the clocks back. Fall is here for certain in Lambertville, the Halloween capital of pretty much everywhere. Gorgeous displays bedeck the yards of Union Street, Dolores Dragan's being the most spectacular. The leaves have turned, many have fallen. Everett was out yesterday with a big gas leaf-blower, blowing the leaves from the funeral home sidewalk into the street. The wind blew them all back again. Some things are hardly worth doing, though a good Halloween display is forever.

Speaking of the weather, last night I showed up late at the monthly meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, having totally forgotten about it due to my absorption in Sunday's episode of The Good Wife. (You can see these on CBS.com if you're willing to wait until Monday or later.) Luckily I didn't hold them up. Only one case was before the Zoning Board, that of a local electrician who sells generators. He needed permission to put an apartment over his place of business. I was kind of tickled to see him waxing nostalgic over Hurricane Sandy. We haven't had a hurricane since then, or any other major power outage that I can recall, so the traffic in generators has fallen off dramatically. Alan would like to see another good hurricane.

Change is in the air, if not hurricanes. Change of time, change of season. Last night I dreamed we were selling the house. A hot-shot real estate agent was showing me all around Lambertville in my dream, offering me other houses, big old Victorian palaces with English gardens. These days you can't get a doghouse in Lambertville for much under a million dollars, so I was eagerly awaiting the realtor's assessment of what our little hovel was worth, and thinking, we could move here, we could move there. Then I thought, wait, this is my house. Why would I want to leave it? And I woke up.

So you see, I'm perfectly happy with my life. I like my house, even though the neighbors are given to noisy drama. I have no generators to sell if the apocalypse comes, so I won't wish for it. I'm sorry the cat died, poor little booger, but they don't live forever, and now we can go traveling without feeling bad about leaving the cat. Because we don't live forever, either.

© 2015 Kate Gallison

Dancing into Autumn

As Louis Armstrong sang, “I dig summer; that’s my time of year.”  I love the bright days, the soft fruits, the big moons, the blooming gardens.  I even love the thunder storms.  But for this year, summer’s days are numbered.  This gorgeous early September is, I remind you, not fall yet but still part of my favorite season.  But autumn nears.  It will be gorgeous, no doubt, but it is the wrong side of winter for me.  The trees now so vibrantly alive will soon show us their true colors and then drop their leaves.  The skies above will turn the same shade as the sidewalks below our feet, and worst of all the dark will descend.  Dusk will come long before supper time.  And there is nothing we can do to stop it.

We can, however, look to brighten up our hearts and souls.  I say we watch a little dancing in the movies.  Try these clips and see if they don’t cheer you up.

You are undoubted familiar with John Travolta’s marvelous turn in “Saturday Night Fever.”  Take another look:

You knew John could do that, but did you know Christopher Walken could do this:

If you have not seen “Pennies from Heaven,” get it.  It could keep you smiling until apple blossom time.

Our finale is the BEST ever.  I quote Frank Sinatra when I say, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Winter is coming to chill us.  I say we stand up to it, face the music, and DANCE!

Annamaria Alfieri