There is a crispness in the air tonight which can only mean one thing: autumn has arrived. It is true that seeing your breath at night in the Bay Area doesn't necessarily mean that summer is over. I remember plenty of nights in July's passed in which I witnessed tiny clouds of steam issuing from my mouth as I exhaled. But this is different. The daylight is lessening with each cycle of the sun. The stars in the night sky are drawing closer to their winter homes. The smell on the breeze is not quite as sweet and floral as it was just a few short weeks ago. The wind and the rain have already made their first appearances since the spring.
In some ways I'm happy that the seasons are beginning to change. The "Season of Cake" has begun, with a family birthday each month until the end of the year. Halloween is drawing nearer, with only 37 days until its arrival. The leaves will soon be turning colours and falling off the trees, and soon the smell of wood smoke will fill the night air. But with all these things to look forward to I am always somewhat saddened by the close of summer. No more 8 p.m. sunsets. No more warm nights without the need for a sweater. No more shorts and flip-flops. No more sweet, warm summer ozone. No more hot weather day-trips and vacations. No more barbecues.*
I did do a lot this summer though. More than I'd done in probably the last few summers combined. I went camping, drove down the coast to Santa Cruz, enjoyed the parts of Las Vegas that don't involve casinos, and went to two beautiful weddings. But tonight, the chill in the air makes me feel as though the summer has been over for quite some time now. As if it's been years since I saw all of those stars and took pictures of Lake Oroville; months since I drove through the desert in 100+ degree weather, walked through red-rocked canyons and stood on the Hoover Dam; weeks since I witnessed two separate pairs of friends enter into new chapters of their lives as married couples. But it wasn't as long ago as it seems to me tonight. One of those weddings was only two days ago. And looking at the weather forecast for the forthcoming week the summer is still alive and well, bringing us an abundance of warm days to finish off September.
I will welcome the fall when it arrives completely, just as I will welcome the winter when its time comes. But I do love it when summer extends itself in the Bay Area. The days might be a little shorter, and the rain may fall a little more frequently, but the warmth is still there in the afternoons, and the evenings don't get quite as cold as January. All of the seasons have their merits, and I think I've grown to love each of them equally over the years, but the transitions between them can be almost just as good. And though it may officially be autumn to the half of the world that resides in the Northern Hemisphere, most of us around here call it "Indian Summer".
* This statement is a complete lie. There honestly is no reason that, because summer is over, it is no longer possible to barbecue. The weather really makes no difference whatsoever as to the practicability of cooking food on an outdoor grill, with the exception being whether or not you have a covering of some sort, be it awning, carport, or extremely large umbrella, to cook under in the case that it is raining or snowing or sleeting or if anything else should happen to be falling from the sky that you would not like on your food. A good friend of mine barbecues at 3 a.m. almost every New Years, simply because after a long night of partying and drinking, you get hungry around that time, and what's better at 3 a.m. than a nice, juicy tri-tip and some grilled scallops? But I simply threw that sentence out there because it does actually mean something. It means that summer is typically when you would have large barbecues with lots of friends and family. It's not often that you find people inviting you over for an outdoor, sunset gathering involving grilled meat and potato salad and watermelon and iced tea in the middle of November. But I digress.
Postscriptus
On a complete side note, if we have the winter solstice at the beginning of winter, the summer solstice at the beginning of summer, the autumnal equinox at the beginning of autumn, and the vernal equinox at the beginning of spring, shouldn't spring be called vern?
Or should I just study more Latin and shut up about little things such as this?
In some ways I'm happy that the seasons are beginning to change. The "Season of Cake" has begun, with a family birthday each month until the end of the year. Halloween is drawing nearer, with only 37 days until its arrival. The leaves will soon be turning colours and falling off the trees, and soon the smell of wood smoke will fill the night air. But with all these things to look forward to I am always somewhat saddened by the close of summer. No more 8 p.m. sunsets. No more warm nights without the need for a sweater. No more shorts and flip-flops. No more sweet, warm summer ozone. No more hot weather day-trips and vacations. No more barbecues.*
I did do a lot this summer though. More than I'd done in probably the last few summers combined. I went camping, drove down the coast to Santa Cruz, enjoyed the parts of Las Vegas that don't involve casinos, and went to two beautiful weddings. But tonight, the chill in the air makes me feel as though the summer has been over for quite some time now. As if it's been years since I saw all of those stars and took pictures of Lake Oroville; months since I drove through the desert in 100+ degree weather, walked through red-rocked canyons and stood on the Hoover Dam; weeks since I witnessed two separate pairs of friends enter into new chapters of their lives as married couples. But it wasn't as long ago as it seems to me tonight. One of those weddings was only two days ago. And looking at the weather forecast for the forthcoming week the summer is still alive and well, bringing us an abundance of warm days to finish off September.
I will welcome the fall when it arrives completely, just as I will welcome the winter when its time comes. But I do love it when summer extends itself in the Bay Area. The days might be a little shorter, and the rain may fall a little more frequently, but the warmth is still there in the afternoons, and the evenings don't get quite as cold as January. All of the seasons have their merits, and I think I've grown to love each of them equally over the years, but the transitions between them can be almost just as good. And though it may officially be autumn to the half of the world that resides in the Northern Hemisphere, most of us around here call it "Indian Summer".
* This statement is a complete lie. There honestly is no reason that, because summer is over, it is no longer possible to barbecue. The weather really makes no difference whatsoever as to the practicability of cooking food on an outdoor grill, with the exception being whether or not you have a covering of some sort, be it awning, carport, or extremely large umbrella, to cook under in the case that it is raining or snowing or sleeting or if anything else should happen to be falling from the sky that you would not like on your food. A good friend of mine barbecues at 3 a.m. almost every New Years, simply because after a long night of partying and drinking, you get hungry around that time, and what's better at 3 a.m. than a nice, juicy tri-tip and some grilled scallops? But I simply threw that sentence out there because it does actually mean something. It means that summer is typically when you would have large barbecues with lots of friends and family. It's not often that you find people inviting you over for an outdoor, sunset gathering involving grilled meat and potato salad and watermelon and iced tea in the middle of November. But I digress.
Postscriptus
On a complete side note, if we have the winter solstice at the beginning of winter, the summer solstice at the beginning of summer, the autumnal equinox at the beginning of autumn, and the vernal equinox at the beginning of spring, shouldn't spring be called vern?
Or should I just study more Latin and shut up about little things such as this?
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