Another Fifteen Degrees ...

Up reasonably early today … but still snookums and mutts have half a day in already as I grump down the shortened path to my new studio.  I sure like the view better where I can see the front stoop and out to the mailbox on the road.  The cardinals down here sure are a fertile specie.  A fledgling is flitting about a winding sweet potato vine.  I found a nest in my grill this year, so when winter comes, I’ll need to seal the opening and remove the nest.

And I finally got my first glimpse of a humming bird as the petunias are re-invigorated by the cooler mornings.  It will warm to the nineties later today.

It will be a busy day for me as I prepare the synagogue for evening services tonight, build a representative sukka at the entrance, return home to prepare for Yom Kippur.  At this time of life I will probably forgo many of the rituals of this holy day.  It is a time of afflicting the soul and fasting.  I am allowed to skip the fast because of medical reasons, but I think I will still limit my food to dry toast and water just to remind myself that this is not a time of rejoicing.

Bathing is also forbidden by tradition, though the scriptures are silent on that point.  We get around that by bathing before sundown tonight, and bathing after sundown tomorrow, so we don’t become real putrid.  And tomorrow night is called break the fast, and is accompanied by a light meal and of course, much ritual.

But for the moment, coffee and greenery.  The soaking rains we had last week has caused the dormant grasses to spring to life and shooting up seed heads faster than I can mow them.  Now it will be two days before I can mow again, so the yard will be looking scruffy.  My religion probably baffles my Baptist neighbors.  I mow on Sunday when all the god-fearing people are in church.  And I rest on Saturday when all the god-fearing (and not so god-fearing) wash their cars.

So here I sit … gazing out my window into the verges of my property, and into this window of words and color, reading blogs and facebook posts and anti-Semitic rantings from the religion of peace, and watch another day flit by.

Good morning!

~r