Cold

Autumn cold has snapped Seattle. It seems so sudden this year. Like the Whomping Willow in HP3 dropping its leaves in one shake. The leaves are still on our trees, but the summer was so brief and cold and wet compared to other years and Indian Summer skipped us completely, so it seems as if all the leaves have changed color and dropped in one swoop. I'll take a walk later to remind myself that Winter doesn't begin tomorrow.

Fall brings up another season of thought: storing nuts for winter (getting chores done), going back to school, "activities". Sometimes I think we all think we grow up in the Fall. We put on serious faces and get to work. But inside I feel the flutter of butterfly wings, of childlike whistfulness and adventure. Wanderlust sticks a grappling hook in my gut and says, "GO!" Sentimentality tickles my feet and says, "rake a leaf house in the yard." We don't have enought deciduous trees to yield enough leaves for this feat. Perhaps I'll plant some.

I see hints of the same flutterings in other adult eyes and wonder if they, too, would like to rake leaves and leap into them.

In any event, I am determined to make it to October without turning on the furnace. Bundle up familia. Get cozy.