Thoughts of a Wednesday

[magid]

The season's changing:
Monday was Boston's first snow of the season, light and slushy, gone by the evening.
Tuesday I got to break the wonderfully brittle ice topping some puddles.
And for observant Jews, Monday was the switch to v'ten tal u'matar livracha in amidot (one of the few things that happens around the same time in the secular year, being based on the solar rather than lunar calendar).

Monday I walked out of the office lobby to see the full moon in front of me, escaping the back alley as it rose between two office buildings. By the time it was fully aloft, the sky had changed, with thin veils of clouds drifting over its luminous face. Gorgeous.

It also means Hanukah will soon be here, so I should figure out what I'll be doing, if anything, beyond the basic candles.

I should just give up on thinking I'll get anything done around the house at night; it never happens. Instead, almost everything happens before work. Today that included getting the rest of the pomegranate seeds out, packing up the leftovers for work, taking out the trash (apparently no one did it last week, despite my email. *sigh*), taking out paper recycling, taking out the Boston Organics bin, getting a prescription refilled, and bringing the coins I'd rolled (ages ago) to the bank and getting new sleeves (the change, it is accumulating again). Plus the regular 1.5 mile walk in this crisp weather. Now if I could only sneak in a nap...

I have a faux-leather bound 2007 week-at-a-view calendar, with a nifty bunch of world maps at the back (plus a guide to wines!). I don't need it; I have a calendar already. Anyone want it?

And for the Boston-local people, there's art for sale, from the School of the MFA (December 6-11) and Mass Art (December 4-9), in addition to all the craft fairs and such around.

Comments

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

W-WHAT? I always did it on the 7th of Heshvan. I never heard of this before?!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm pretty sure that even Rav Artscroll says December 4/5. I never heard 7 Heshvan.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh wait. It's because I learned the halacha for all this in Israel. And I never realized it was any different if you lived outside of Israel. Like, things they don't tell you when you are a "yored"...
(when I was younger and lived in the US, my dad would remind me the day it happened, so it could easily have been December.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't think this was one of those Aretz-distinct mitzvot...

[jaq.livejournal.com]

I get to know the season's changed by walking to the station in the morning in complete darkness.

[magid.livejournal.com]

For me, that's partly season, but also partly the whole daylight-savings thing, which makes it arbitrarily a different time. I don't have a problem with changing the clocks per s*e, but I definitely have an adjustment period. I have to change what time I think the light indicates (I wake up based on sunlight; I totally couldn't manage mornings as early as yours on a regular basis. Er, unless it's similar times, but the light's so different because of the latitude.).

* Though when the majority of the year is on "daylight savings time", just call it normal time already!