Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. To get my clothes sorted and put away — summer things into the storage bin, winter things into the bureau and closet, unflattering things into a pile for donation, and all of it off the couch.

2. Walking down the hallway just before sunset, I witness a magnificent view over eastern downtown D.C. I can tell there must be a glorious sunset in the opposite direction because every upper-story window in sight is fiery.

3. Rudi is nursing an injury, which means he’s unable to head out on his typical long-distance weekend ride. Instead, on Saturday morning he sleeps in with me and then we head out for a leisurely pedal to a bike shop (so I can buy a cute new bike purse at deep discount) and then to try a new-to-us eatery, Big Bear Café, for a late lunch. It’s wonderful to have him around for the whole day.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Today was a Wednesday and might have merited a Yarn Along post where I could share with you what I was reading and knitting.

Except I’m not really knitting or reading anything at the moment.

Oh, there are projects and books all over the place in various stages of completion, but none of them are things I want to be spending my time on. This wouldn’t be a problem if I were spending my time in some other constructive, positive way by, say, writing or learning the ukelele or parsing irregular French verbs or dealing with the 20 pounds of apples sitting in my fridge or hanging out with friends. But I’m not doing any of those things either.

Instead, I’m spending a lot of time curled up on the couch, watching tv and playing games on my phone. Well, and feeling irked about the fact that that’s all that I’m doing.

I totally know that this is a cyclical stage of depression that arises around this time every year. I know the steps I need to take to combat it, such as going to bed at a more reasonable hour and making an effort to see or phone friends and spending lunch hours in the sun, but it’s far too easy not to do those things. Staying stuck doesn’t require any effort, but getting myself unstuck does.

A bright spot is that usually by the time I realize this has become a problem I’m on my way back out of the doldrums. Tonight, I tackled the echoing cavern of my blog and a languishing writing obligation.

Tomorrow, I’ll see about the reading and the knitting. I’ll clear off the table and wind up a fresh ball of yarn to start a new project — maybe a hat or some socks in stripey Christmas yarn. And I’ll hit the library to borrow a cozy, possibly by M.C. Beaton, since I’ve found her Hamish Macbeth mysteries a satisfying (and quick) way to combat the listless feeling I get sometimes after reading several good books in a row.

That way, even if I’m still stuck next week, at least I’ll have a book or a project to tell you about.

Sorry if you’ve been looking for the blog the last few days. Our server host sent an email at the beginning of the week to say they had to perform emergency upgrades and that they needed to take us offline, hopefully only for a limited time. That continued off and on for the last several days, culminating with Rudi needing to do maintenance work to get the blogs reestablished in the public domain. Irksome, but hopefully now behind us.

Here are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. With the return to standard time, buildings are now lit up at the end of the day. As I’m about to head out, I glance across the street and notice, four stories below, a fellow practicing the violin alone by his office window, fingers flying and bow flourishing.

2. The leaves are finally dropping here in greater quantities. I crunch through yellowed gingko leaves atop the brick sidewalk down the block and, closer to the metro station, kick planetree leaves the size of plates down the street like a rock.

3. A late game start means only five players on our volleyball team show up. After we beat our opponent, we opt to remain in the gym to scrimmage among ourselves, three against two. The final serve of the night is called, the group opposite us sets up their biggest hitter, and I time my jump perfectly to block his spike back down onto their side. It is a remarkably satisfying way to end the workout.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?