Longing for a Change of Season

As always, I have reached the point where I am bored with summer. I’m over the 90 degree temperatures, plethora of bugs, and summer activities. While cookouts and swimming can be fun, I don’t enjoy either one when temperatures exceed 90 and the heat index reaches over 100. In fact, the miserable heat forced me into the rooms of my home with window units. I might feel differently about summer if I had central air conditioning, but as a general rule for my entire life, I have always loved fall.I look forward to fall. I enjoy fall. I don’t get tired of fall. If I had to choose one season for the entire year, I’d choose fall for so many reasons.

Just add a Layer

As I sit in my home wearing a tank top and running skirt with the window units running full blast and still feeling hot, I long for the joys of adding a layer. In fall, if the house gets chilly, I can throw on a fleece or cover up in an afghan or pull on some fuzzy socks. I don’t have those sorts of options in summer. If my house is too hot, short of stripping down to nothing, I have few options for getting comfortable.

Goodbye bug bites

While some mosquitos linger into October, they definitely don’t linger very long. If we have an early frost, they die away even faster. While I love butterflies, moths, dragonflies, ladybugs, lightning bugs, and a few other choice bugs (it’s a small club), mosquitos can return to the dark underworld that spawned them.

Die weeds die

During this particularly hot summer, I have allowed weeds to encroach on my flower beds. I look out the window and see them in all weedy majesty, and I remind myself that when frost hits they’ll die, and I can pick their decayed bodies away from my beautiful plants in the spring.

Beautiful leaves

I’m a sucker for beautiful fall color. I love leaves on the ground and on the trees. I remember building leaf forts as a kid. I enjoy the crunching sound just walking across my yard.

Nerd heart

My nerd heart glows with memories of back-to-school shopping, marching band practice, new school supplies, early mornings in a classroom, afternoons in the quad at college, hiking trips with classmates, bonfires, and so much more. Now that I live in my hometown, I can hear the football games at my high school. I watch children jumping on and off school buses. My friends post
photos of their kids in their college dorms.

We are having a brief cold front, and I can open the windows and air out my house. The temperatures are sitting around 79/80 with low humidity, and it feels like heaven! The breeze refreshes me and reminds me that fall is not far away. I just have to hang on a little longer and try not to wish my time away.