Most people - oh, dear, how can I say most people when we see thousands and thousands every day simply trying to survive? Our awareness of the hardships of so many makes it difficult to generalize or play with words, as I intend to do today. Forgive me.

I was going to say most people , perhaps women especially, are concerned with fashion, with being up-to-date with their clothes. I had an aunt who used to complain about the changing fashions, designed, she said, to make you look like a Martian if you didn't conform. Actually, I'm pretty past conforming now; I stick to the hem length I feel most comfortable with. (Cheaper that way, too.) Yes, well, that's not the point I want to make.

I think we are often more concerned with being modern or hip (do they still say that?), anyway, not old-hat with the clothes we put on our bodies while we neglect the ideas and expressions with which we clothe our minds. Of course, I'm going to give you some examples, and I hope you will think of some of your own, depending on your age.

I used to say, when recognizing someone I hadn't seen for years, as I made the connection between the face I remembered and the older one I was looking at, "you haven't changed a bit" And then I'd think of an old commercial: "Two, Two, Two Certs in One". I think it was showing that the item was both a breath mint and a candy at the same time. That's what I did as I reconciled the face I was looking at with the one I remembered: Two, two, two in one. See, it doesn't mean anything if you don't know the original commercial. So I don't say it any more.

And when we all first became aware of chlorophyll and its effectiveness in reducing bad breath or body odor (does anyone remember that?), I used to say "Just think what a goat would smell like if it didn't eat chlorophyl". That doesn't mean a thing now. So when I talk about my (constant) efforts to lose weight, or at least not to gain, I say, "Just think what I'd look like if I didn't try", and forget both the chlorophyll and the goat.

I just asked whether anyone still says "hip". What about "super"? I guess the hip (?) or in (?) expressions now are uppercase initial shortcuts: LOL, IMHO, BFF and so on. Those are all I can think of; you can fill in my gaps, or your children can. Do you know where your children are at? (!)

On the other hand, or maybe not, are any of you young folks aware of the source of older sayings or aphorisms? Does anyone read Aesop's Fables any more? I mean, for example, does anyone say "sour grapes"? Oh, what about "eating a peck of dirt before you die"? I never did know how much a peck was. Frank Loesser's song in his musical "Guys and Dolls": dealt with these difficult concepts: "I Love You, a Bushel and a Peck." Bushel I used to know, but not a peck. As for the dirt you may consume before you die, it's more lethal now, laden with insecticide and all.

Nothing is simple.

A peck is an imperial and United States customary unit of dry volume, equivalent to 2 gallons or 8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints (9.09 (UK) or 8.81 (US) litres).

bushel: a measure of capacity equal to 64 US pints (equivalent to 35.2 litres), used for dry goods.

I know, I missed September the first. I thought it, all day, and all day yesterday, too, but I never reached my blog with it. I've always said that September and especially September the first is more like the New Year to me than the New Year is. This is when everything begins again. No matter the weather - and it's hot here now, not like January (in the Northern hemisphere) - people are through with summer. Life as we know it is beginning again. Classes and courses and new programs are beginning again. Plans and routines and itineraries are beginning again. Out with the old, in with the new. Yes, yes, all of that. So I spent the weekend throwing out clothes, well, not throwing out, but putting them into donation boxes for use by other people. I now have a pile of empty hangers and one whole (new!) empty garment bag. That feels pretty good. I was motivated by the fact that I hadn't worn most of the clothes in over two years but also by the recognition of how little I needed while I was on my cruise: 109 days of looking like Li'l Orphan Annie changed my attitude toward what I wore. (Is anyone reading this old enough to remember that the comic strip character wore one red dress for years and years and years?)

That doesn't explain or excuse why I didn't report here on the first of September. I think I had a Writer's Block. (Writer's Blog?) It happens. Too much to say, but too vague to say it. The end of so many things, summer things and memories paralyzed me. I was still basking in the luxuries of the cruise and not coming to terms with the realities of my life. I am normally quite a frugal person and it was hard letting go of profligate, wasteful indulgences. I must be disciplined again and careful. I am a glass-half-full kind of person but I must get used to the half-empty glass in terms of my budget. I need to count my blessings more carefully.

Does that explain my reluctance to acknowledge my "new year"? Do I understand? I am alone, I know that. But sometimes I forget to blow the whistle. No one else is going to. And sometimes I forget to listen. I'll try to now.

So happy September the third.