Had a decent Yom Kippur, at least as decent as you can have for a day where you're supposed to be remorseful for all of the bad things you've done. For me my remorse was largely remorse for all of the tremendous anger I felt about my past relationship with the ex (and her mother) back in NC. Need to move on, as folks in the current relationship are counting on me and I shouldn't dwell in the past.

Wish I could have attended the blogtoberfest...it just had to be scheduled on Yom Kippur...aargh! Was it actually devoted just to bloggers, or was it a general octoberfest? For some reason I'd never imagine that there were that many enthusiastic Buffalo bloggers outside of (e:strip). I'd like to see Central Terminal sometime before there's some huge bat guano problem and they have to knock it down to prevent an epidemic. I wonder if they give tours...

Today at an estate sale (e:inscrutable) and I got a chest of drawers for $40 for our move to the new apartment. It's kinda moldy and the drawers don't open because the humidity of the basement made them swell shut. I'm really more worried about the mold, as the thought of the mold spreading throughout the house and making my existing respiratory situation (already exacerbated by (e:inscrutable)'s cat zeke and (e:ktmuffin)) gives me the willies. I need to find a can of "mold nuke" (if it exists) and apply liberally to said dresser. The dresser does have substantially dovetail joints and looks circa 40's-50's, so I'm hoping it turns out to be a good deal. It's going to be a pain in the butt to move it from the storage warehouse we're storing it in to the apartment, but hopefully we'll round up some of (e:inscrutable)'s friends to help us.

Oh, yeah, I'm moving from Elmwood Village to north buffalo on Sanders St. I'll probably writing more about this event in a future journal entry.

With the coming of Yom Kippur, there's the inevitable thoughts of death. There is the thought of death in the future (will I make sufficient amends for g-d to inscribe me in the book of life for another year) as well as thoughts of those around you who have died in the past.

Buffalo, I've noticed, is also a city of death. I see so much around me that was once beautiful and grand being subject to endless decay and destruction. I thought I had seen it all until I saw Beth Jacob cemetery, an abandoned Jewish cemetery in eastern Buffalo that is pretty much as destroyed and desecrated as a place in Buffalo can be. Until I had seen Beth Jacob, I've had been able to somehow stomach much of the blight in the city, but seeing blight on this level was the ultimate outrage.

In spite of my feelings that this situation with the Beth Jacob cememtery has got to change, the one thing that sets this place apart from all of the other decaying places in this city is that it's the only place where I have found decay and growth, death and life, in equillibrium. The area has so devolved that nature has taken over, and the decaying headstones are covered over with vines and surrounded by tall green grass. It's awful, yet quite eerily beautful at the same time; when I went about two weeks ago (with (e:inscrutable)) we saw deer in resting out in the open, as if to stake nature's own claim on the area.

"The Gates of Repentance are always Open"



The Deer we saw



The rest

Happy b-day, spud girl (aka (e:lizabeth)).

Today, I spent the first day in the year of our lord 5768 reflecting long and hard about the person I want to be. The gates of repentance have been opened with the blast of a horn, and it is up to me whether I will be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year, or whether I will part from the life I want to lead ten days from now.

There's so much that I'd like to write right now, but I don't have the time tonight. However I think that my posts for the next nine Days Of Awe will be a little more deeper than usual, especially considering the challenges and life-changing events in the coming year.

(reposting because I can't find out how to delete comments)

Labor Day Weekend Summary

Introduced (e:inscrutable) to the parents, and the four of us had yet another great buffet experience at the India Gate.

Found a nice apartment in Northern Buffalo near Sanders @ Colvin where (e:inscrutable) and I can live together and merge households.

Went to Toronto to see relatives I had not seen in seven years, the last time being at my grandfather's funeral. Nice to see them again in happier circumstances. As my orthodox relatives tend to have lots of kids, I wasn't surprised to find that I had another six 2nd cousins who I never knew existed. And they're all cute, of course.

Experienced the unbearably sad reality that my parents are getting older. Seeing the people who I relied on to protect me and be strong for me requiring my protection and strength was an extremely emotional experience for me. I also started realizing the burden on me to be the strong and protective one in my existing and future family relationships. I see a lot more gym visits in my future.

Got to see Toronto and eat lots of yummy Indian and Thai food. Remembered that I'd actually have pictures of said food if I wasn't dork enough to forget my digital camera. I also saw the Great Wall of China . That's Canadian humor for you.

Got a whole bunch of CD's of Candian artists I've heard across the water on 102.1 The Edge. I've found it surprisingly hard to find Bedouin Soundclash, Ill Scarlett, D.J. Champion, and Billy Talent in Buffalo stores, so I kind of went hog-wild the moment I stepped into HMV.

Got the non-blocking, multi-threaded querying feature of my Postg reSQL Coc oa framework in the initial stages of working, which should help reduce users' perception of latency in applications using the framework. In plain english, I spent some time on my laptop computer doing programming stuff and accomplished something important.

Got pizza scissors. For cutting pizza. I'll add a picture when I have time.