You know that autumnal feeling you get sometimes, that your life is passing, and it is sort of bittersweet and panic inducing?

Not that life is passing you by necessarily, but just that it is actually happening, and that your time on earth is mid-process and you wonder if you are using your time well. I sometimes get that. Usually it's when I am walking around and feeling good and maudlin, not when I am hurrying to eat a dinner of brussel sprouts and Dr. Pepper while I open cardboard boxes, which is what I did last night. I have been spending much of my time opening boxes, which is fundamentally not interesting, though I have noticed that often, as I put the boxes in the recycling bin, it is dripping with blood, which invariably is coming from my fingers.

It's bad enough to cut my finger tips, but the fact that I don't feel it until I see the blood makes me worry I have diabetes, though I think it's just paper cuts that are too fine to feel. I have been watching DVDs every night, late, after I get through with the boxes. I bought this 7 speaker DVD system with a subwoofer, which sounds great, but I'm afraid the stomach rattling bass will bother my neighbors, so I keep it set to barely audible.

But having a tv that works is very nice, almost as nice as having a place to sit down. I'm sort of glad not to have cable TV, because I can't stand any more talk of war coming than I get already on the radio. The whole topic gives me a headache. Plus I can't believe they killed the Prime Minister of Serbia and it barely cracks the news radar. Isn't that what brought us into the Great War? Or was that World War II? Whichever, it was really bad, and you'd think that assasinated guy would lead the news over the French and their refusal to go along with the Iraq resolution. Certainly over the frightening drifter who grabbed Elzabeth Smart. I have also started packing a box as I unload the others, because I am realizing I have way too much stuff. Although I should point out that among the stuff I just unpacked this very evening is a digital camera, so I will now be able to use my own images. So brace yourself for that.