I’ve got stars in my eyes. The C.H. Booth Library Board of Trustees has arranged for the 14 stars embellished by popular local artists for the September 29 “Diamonds in the Sky” gala raffle to be displayed at the library Friday, August 31, from noon to 5 pm, and Saturday, September 1, from 10 am to 5 pm, on the second floor. If you’ve been reading The Bee, which I know you have, you have had a black-and-white sneak preview of the remarkable artwork practiced upon the wooden stars. I’ll definitely be pussyfooting around the exhibit this weekend to see them in all their colorful glory.

There was another celestial body trying to outshine the stars on August 28. The moon was not only full earlier this week, but also fully eclipsed, as well. The 90-minute-long total eclipse Monday night was the longest in seven years, but East Coast observers had to rise and shine early Tuesday at moonset to catch just the final moments of this lunar eclipse. Not only did the early bird get the worm, but an amazing astronomy show, too.

There is a new, reddish-brown, five-legged swivel chair known as a Lane Dream teakwood leather executive chair in the town clerk’s office. Trimmed with metal studs and walnut accents, it certainly is a handsome piece of furniture for the new town clerk, Debbie Aurelia, who took over this summer from Cindy Simon. It looks to me like a good place to dream, indeed, but the town clerk’s office is always so busy, I don’t think Debbie is going to have much time to do so in that chair. Guess I’ll have to help her out.

There’s another office in town that’s worth a second look, too. Regular visitors to The Bee have learned to take a peek into the corner of the typesetter’s room where Bee employee Linda Baur and her cohorts have had a Christmas tree set up since last December. But it’s not that they’re too lazy to dismantle the holiday pine tree, at all. The tree has been imaginatively decorated with a new theme every month, including Valentine’s Day, Easter, graduation, Fourth of July, and just in time for this week’s big event — Back To School.

Back-to-school kids and parents are being extra quiet as they file in doors by the Sandy Hook Elementary School courtyard this week. A sign on the doors to the courtyard admonishes visitors to be very calm and quiet, since bluebirds are nesting there.

A mass of roaring chrome whisked past me last Sunday as more than 1,500 motorcycles zoomed down South Main Street, part of the Connecticut United Ride, an annual 9/11 memorial charity motorcycle ride. This year the motorcycle ride honored the memory of Captain John Keane of the Waterbury Fire Department, who lost his life in May the line of duty.

And with the advent of the new school year, it didn’t take long for back-to-school traffic to take over the local roads. Monday’s calm, lazy summer roads morphed overnight into a bustling rush of school buses and cars. I have to remember to stay extra alert now for frequent stops by buses and masses of middle schoolers heading for their favorite before and after school haunts in the center of town.

Labor Day Parade President Kym Stendahl always drums up something new each year, and this year she is looking forward to the strongest man in America joining in the September 3 parade. Derek Poundstone not only won the America’s Strongest Man Championship earlier this year, but he has taken part in Scotland’s Scottish Highland Games that include chucking a caber. That’s pretty impressive, if you know that a caber is a pole about the size of a telephone pole or a small fir tree. I hope she doesn’t place him in the line of march right behind the Newtown Forest Association.

I’m going to lie low and enjoy the final summer festivities about town this Labor Day weekend. I hope you will, too. Don’t forget next week to…

Read me again.