Off the Cliff

De ramis cadunt folia: autumn's empires are falling down, winter's closing in. Enough leaves remain on enough trees in sufficient autumn colours-- ochre, umber, sienna-- to recall the brocade glory of just a week ago; enough trees have gone completely bare to remind me of the drabness to come. But still I get little memory frissons of various somber yellow years as I walk the leaf-washed streets- '58 in my serge convent uniform, playing in the leaf piles in the darkening back yard; '85 reading Soseki and Takuboku on Brunswick Ave, fatally around the corner from the now defunct Book City; 2000 biking down to Chinatown Central for hideously overpriced Saiyuki tanks. Good times, good times.

And totally misplaced, a memory of having coffee in an Omote-sandou kissa with Fearless Leader and paleaswater on such a November afternoon as this. Which was in fact February, but Yoyogi park was still awash in yellow ginko leaves and it *felt* like November. (Though Tokyo November was usually shirtsleeve weather, which is more disconcerting than I can say.)
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On the utterly mundane but satisfying side, received notices from gov't that my Old Age Pension and Seniors' Drug Benefit plan will kick in next February. Money is good. And that worry (did they get the application? will they approve it?) now settled.

Have been near-crippled by IT band sporadically turning to concrete these last few weeks. Not good, with snow and boots likely to happen in the near future. Knees also complain, and only stop if I wear Berks. Also a no-go if this winter is the way it looks to be. IT and knees *loathe* boots for reasons never fully understood: stabilizing my wobbly ankles makes everything else complain? Mentioned this to chiropracter, who whipped out a theraband loop and told me to fasten it around my ankles and then start walking sideways. Hoo boy yes. Fast strengthening exercise, here we are. I crab-walk the upper hallway twice a day and even in three days notice a difference.

That reading meme a while back asked if you'd ever had a reading hangover, and an amazing number of people said they had no idea what that meant. I have one from In the Woods, something ferocious, which Angela Carter is doing nothing to disperse. However I also have The Goblin Emperor from the library, and I trust that will do the trick. Before I go hang me over, all over again, with the next in French's series.