Fall is upon us with its much-anticipated wonders. Giddy parents are gently pushing anxious children onto school buses and then enjoying their first child-free hours in months. The temperature is dropping into the 70s. The leaves on the palm trees in Beverly Hills are staying exactly the same color. An occasional cloud dots the sky.

We Jews are anticipating the arrival of the New Year by taking stock of our most recent loop around the sun and contemplating our fates during the next loop. We ask ourselves anxiety provoking unanswerable questions about what will befall us and our loved ones in the year to come. Will our businesses prosper? Will our children stay healthy? Will there be peace or war? Will the inevitable exhaustion of the sun’s fuel in billions of years that wipes out all life on the planet occur after humans have colonized other solar systems? Will my cat stop throwing up on our rug? Why did I ever agree to get a cat? If humans colonize other solar systems, will they take cats with them?

These autumn ruminations are ultimately unproductive, but there is one very practical harbinger of fall that takes minutes and can go a long way to keeping you healthy in the coming year – a flu shot. Our office just received our batch.

The flu vaccine is recommended for everyone over six months. The Centers for Disease Control’s Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine webpage will answer most of your questions about the flu shot.

To those celebrating I wish a sweet and healthy year. And to all of us I wish a happy Labor Day and a flu-free winter.