A Little Bit of 'This and That'

Anybody catch the Harvest Moon?  Wasn't it amazing?  We were quite lucky here that the clouds parted long enough for a view.  I did managed to get a picture, but, alas, my camera is not for moon shots.  As big and beautiful as this moon was, all I got was a small white spot in the middle of darkness. There's been a touch of fall here, and you'll hear no complaints from me.  This has been a summer to remember, and I, for one, am ready to move on.  Actually, I was thinking that this upcoming weekend,  if I can find the time, I just might try putting together a new autumn look.

Not much is happening on my personal life.  I did find out that I will probably be able to stay in my home for another couple of years.  My landlady didn't want to sell, but the other party did, and my fear was the other party wouldn't help pay the bills, and my landlady would be forced to sell.  Luckily, for me, the housing market here in the city is low, and both would rather wait until it rises.  Whew!!!  That's such a relief.  And, I did learn a good lesson.  Be prepared for anything.  Nothing goes on forever, and you have to be ready to make the necessary changes to move on with your life.  You would have thought that, at 64, I would have learned that lesson a long time ago, but when things are going well, you tend to forget.  

I'm adjusting to the new work space...or perhaps I should say 'doing the best I can'.  I am still not overjoyed with this place, but I at least wish I could say I was happy with it.  I will NEVER get used to these elevators.  I have a phobia to begin with and stepping into an elevator on the 10th floor that actually rocks back and forth when you step in really sends me into quite a tizzy. I don't even bother with the freight elevator anymore.  It's broken down more than it is working.  Needless to say, even on the regular elevators, each ride up and down is quite an adventure.  I'm not a happy camper, to say the least.

On the plus side, hubby got accepted for unemployment.  What a load off my chest!!!  I just didn't know how I was going to handle it...the rent, bills, food, etc.  My son does help out, but I don't him to pull hubby's weight.  Now, it we could just find him a job.  I can see he is getting stuck in that 'rut'...staying up late and sleeping part of the day away, feeling blah, no energy. Perhaps he is a touch depressed.  He's used to being active, and when you take that away and loved getting up and dressing up in shirt and tie and heading off to work.  Now, that's been taken away.  Hopefully, something will come along soon.  I hate seeing him this way. 

And now, to get back to that gorgeous moon...for your pleasure, a lovely poem by Longfellow.

As a pale phantom with a lamp
Ascends some ruin's haunted stair,
So glides the moon along the damp
Mysterious chambers of the air.

Now hidden in cloud, and now revealed,
As if this phantom, full of pain,
Were by the crumbling walls concealed,
And at the windows seen again.

Until at last, serene and proud
In all the splendor of her light,
She walks the terraces of cloud,
Supreme as Empress of the Night.

I look, but recognize no more
Objects familiar to my view;
The very pathway to my door
Is an enchanted avenue.

All things are changed. One mass of shade,
The elm-trees drop their curtains down;
By palace, park, and colonnade
I walk as in a foreign town.

The very ground beneath my feet
Is clothed with a diviner air;
While marble paves the silent street
And glimmers in the empty square.

Illusion! Underneath there lies
The common life of every day;
Only the spirit glorifies
With its own tints the sober gray.

In vain we look, in vain uplift
Our eyes to heaven, if we are blind;
We see but what we have the gift
Of seeing; what we bring we find. 

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow--