It’s that time of year again. The first official day of the fall season, when the air turns crisp, the leaves change color, the harvest is bountiful, and the holiday marathon begins.
Gone are the hot afternoons and muggy evenings of summer. Gone are the lazy days spent near the water with no schedule to keep. Gone are the late evenings spent chasing fireflies and gazing at the stars. Gone are the tank tops and flip flops. Gone are the days spent in your bathing suit and applying aloe to sun kissed skin. Gone is the freedom of summer.
Now, it’s back to school (in some form). It’s back to a schedule, a bedtime, and schoolwork. Back to the lunchboxes and backpacks. Back to layering with jackets and sweaters. Back to socks and scarves. Back to getting up early, sometimes while it is still dark outside, and coming home late. Back is the chill in the air and the frost on the ground. Back is the routine of fall.
I enjoy the summer months, as you can tell. It is my favorite time of year. There is something about the hot weather that makes me slow down, probably because it’s so hot, and soak in all the time I have with my family. Longer days and shorter nights make it seem as though there is more time to do things. It’s okay to eat dinner at eight o’clock in the evening because the sun is still up! In the summer, my joints do not ache as much, and I find that I am more active.
The fall season brings a chill that seems colder that springtime chill. Forty degrees in September feels much cooler than forty degrees in April. While a spring rain can be nippy, there something about an October rain that is down right bone-chilling. A frost in March seems to melt away much faster than a November frost, which must be scrapped off car windows each morning.
There are a lot of people out there that enjoy, even love, this time of year. While I do enjoy the foliage, apple and pumpkin picking, and having the house to myself during a school day, I am always sad to see the summer end. So, until late May when the heat returns, I will be the one with boots and a scarf on, a ho-hum look on my face, and daydreaming about summer.
