Embracing Fall

Cold weather always comes as a shock to me.

The first frost came while we were out of town, so it was somehow less personal.

But when we got home and the mornings continued to be chilly, I started to panic--

Winter is coming!!!

While everyone else was complaining about the heat in September, I was luxuriating in the feel of warm air on bare skin (and feet!).

And I was told on more than one occasion by more than one person that I live in the wrong state.

Yeah, I know.

To me, summer is youth and winter is old age and fall is that time, when you're, oh, say, 42, and you realize that you are going to get old and die and will never be summer again!!

But since there's nothing I can do about either situation--short of plastic surgery and a condo in the Bahamas--I'm trying to focus very hard on the compensations:

Blue skies, dry air, golden leaves.

The boys picked a bushel of wild apples and a friend and I made gallons of apple butter (yes, I broke briefly out of my anti-domesticity frame of mind).

I haven't quite figured out what the compensations for that other thing are, but I'm working on embracing fall.