Here’s the deal, occasionally we all naturally muse upon time as it passes, and about  time as it repeats and reoccurs.  Echoes in time.  Holidays.  New Years.  First days of snow.

I knew a guy who spoke of Sept. 21 being the usual day for first frost around Ithaca, N.Y.  Other guys in other gyms, towns, and other first days have also remembered or remarked upon special days.

Days, let us admit, can also be relentless, and from time to time, we seem to want to “mark them,” lest they fly away without any importance.  A note I recently read on the internet spoke of  there being only 940 Saturdays between a child being born and marching off to college.

How many Converse sneakers do we remember?  I count four adult pairs, as I just got new “high tops,” but they’re canvas not the leather of the first ones I got  back in the 80’s in San Francisco.  I probably wore the two canvas pair which followed the leather ones on average around 10 years each.  I also  just got a new battery-charged vacuum cleaner.  This is the second one I’ve used on the same 2009 Honda.  Those Hondas last beyond filled ashtrays or dirty floor mats.  Turns out it is my second Honda, too.

As I first began to jot down this diary note, it  was a momentary period when I didn’t live in my own house, I was a temporary renter.   I’ve owned only 4 houses.   I’ve only had 5 dogs in those 4 houses,  but I have started to lose count of the cats.  Coffee pots?  Come on!  More than can be remembered. I remember 5  Melita coffee urns along with the  two “Mister Coffee’s” I have in the basement for when we have company.

There’s only been 14 no-hitters for the Cubbies, and I watched  the most recent one.   I don’t remember my first kiss, but I wish I did.  Maybe if I make it up, it’ll be just as good.  Markings ether as a first, or memorable, or most recent, are all related to marking the passage of time.  It does go flying past.    Velveeta box by velveeta box, peanut butter jar by peanut butter jar.  Sundays and months of Sundays, and t.g.i.f’s compared to t.b.t’s. (throw back thursdays).

So the battle is always between  routine “same-ol-same-ol”, and the first day of each season.  Hunting, football, academic, and others.  Today I’m all thinking of a 21 year old kid who was to have his first lead in Les Miz, as Jean Valjean, who fell off his mother’s back balcony to his death.  No first day, nor chance to sing, “one day more”.  His life reminds us all.

We’ve just had our first real snow in Maine.  I wouldn’t miss it for all of Florida,  Watch out for new moons, first of sub-zero nights,  and of course the new year.