Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Fall? Already?

Just this week I noticed the trees around here beginning to display their Autumn wardrobe of reds, oranges, and yellows. When I went running this evening on a wooded path in a nearby park, I even found myself crunching some of the first-fallen leaves under my sneakers. And when I finished my 3 miles, at only about 6:30 or so, the afternoon light had noticeably begun to fade away into dusk, earlier than I've become accustomed to at this point. What does all this mean? I need to finally let go of the last few clinging shreds of my Summer mentality, and finally accept that Fall is here to stay. (Mid-October, not a moment too soon, right?)

The unscheduled days of July and August are long gone, replaced by "get up, get ready, get out the door" routines for school and work. An agenda completely devoid of responsibility has given way to Math homework and Spanish review and Reading assignments and take-home Science experiments. Free-for-all pickup football games in the neighborhood have taken a backseat to (two teams' worth of) soccer practices and matches. And all of this is hunky-dory--I mean, sure, it happens every year, right about this time, as a matter of fact, so we really ought to see it coming--I think it's just the whole "losing daylight" thing that bums me out a little. And of course the "decreasing temperatures", which leads to the yearly dilemma of "I despise feeling cold...yet I also dislike wearing a coat...or gloves...or a scarf...and a hat is just RIGHT out of the question". (Thus my annual declaration: I swear I'm moving to Southern California one of these days...)

So yeah, everyone in our family seems to get a bit sluggish while we work out the change-of-season kinks. But on the other hand, we cheer ourselves up with some of the treasures that Fall brings: pumpkin spice lattes (okay, that's just me); tart and juicy apples; Postseason baseball (including, for once, our O-R-I-O-L-E-S)...and in just a few more weeks, the promise of Halloween candy. For that, I'll concede to switching the clocks back...and putting on a warm sweater!

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