So early. So dark.

I know another month of this miserable summer has gone and suddenly we're now into September, but still I got a bit of a shock at 8:30 this evening when I set out for the local shop and the streetlights were on and the light in the sky was already fading. Is it always like this at this time of the year? Was it because of the overcast conditions that it was so obvious? What's the Answer to Everything? (and I really don't believe it's 42).

Anyway, I was full of the best of intentions to hop on a DART this afternoon to get a fresh-air walk and do a bit of blipping, but the afternoon somehow got away from me just like the year has.

Add to all this the fact that I got a letter in this morning's post from Irish Life, informing me that my Pensioner Liaison Officer died last Friday 'after a short illness'. I found the news desperately shocking. I didn't have much face to face contact with Des (largely because, having been forced into early retirement, I persisted in not thinking of myself as a 'pensioner'), but I did have a quick chat with him on the doorstep only six weeks ago or so. The years move on, the seasons follow their inexorable cycle, and we come and we go.

God rest you, Des.