We do have a fall season, but it is admittedly subtle. Temperatures in the west Valley plunge back down into the double digits. A few of the trees in the neighborhood turn colors and drop their leaves—but not the palms, pines or cacti. More Oscar-worthy films appear in theaters, and there is suddenly an awful lot of TV to watch. People bundle up, wearing cardigans and colorful scarves with their miniskirts, flip-flops and peep-toe pumps. (Nobody in Ellay ever puts seasonal clothing in storage, unless they have just moved here from the East Coast or Midwest and don’t know any better.) Gas prices are a little lower, and it once again becomes at least theoretically possible to cause rain simply by washing one’s car. We take part in national pastimes, like putting up Christmas decorations in time for Halloween (hey, it’s not easy creating those fake winter scenes) and watching football games—but we never have to get up early to scrape ice off our windshields.

I was reading something in Slate just now and came across a word I’d never seen: decathect. Having no clue what it meant, I had to look it up immediately. Merriam-Webster doesn’t have it, online or in the 11th edition, though it does have cathexis, the investment of mental or emotional energy in someone or something. Decathect is something you might have to do after cathexis:
            de·ca·thect [dee-kuh-thekt] transitive verb. To withdraw
            one’s feelings of attachment from a person, idea or object, as
            in anticipation of a future loss.
What a useful concept! I gather that cathexis is meant as an opposite to catharsis, a purging, but decathexis is subtly different because of the anticipation factor.

At a time when the economy is still dicey for many people, I work in a magical place where things are booming! Viking is building what seems like an unlimited number of river cruise ships and will expand into the ocean cruising business in 2015. We’re in the process of doubling the size of our office and hiring people right and left. It is interesting to observe the corporate structure changing—processes are getting more formalized little by little, and functions are becoming more narrowly specialized.

According to World Wide Words, the star Sirius is called the dog star due to is prominence in the constellation Canis Major. “Because it rises and sets with the sun during summer in the northern hemisphere, it has lent its name to ‘dog days’ for the hottest part of the year in places north of the equator.” The dog days came a bit later than usual this year but they are definitely in the house—it is very hot outside, in the high 90s or low 100s, and humid.

This business of blogging can be intimidating. “Hello world! I have something to say!” But what? I could talk about professional matters, how awesome my son is, the difficulties my elderly parents are experiencing, typos I’ve noticed (they’re everywhere), movies or theatrical events I’ve attended and what I thought about them—or, you know, the meaning of life. But I’m not really sure anyone is interested in all that. Maybe that’s what Facebook is for—that, and looking at pictures of dogs and cats, of course…