Undeniable Facts About Time

I saw the first Back To School displays go up in Walmart at the end of July. That was crazy. Summer had just barely started. Now in mid August they seem to make a lot more sense.

When the heat broke, and the cool air started to come in, I was glad for a little relief. But it got a little too cool, and I started to worry. Because it was still August, and August shouldn’t be that cool, right?

The sad truth is that I know precious little about the normal ebb and flow of the seasons having spent most of my life in Florida and California. So maybe it does get cool in August. I just don’t want to be one of those people who jumps the gun on the upcoming season, and writes of the current one prematurely.

However, driving from New York to Rhode Island yesterday, one thing was totally obvious. The leaves are starting to turn.

It seems impossible, I know. Just last week we got local peaches from the CSA. Tomatoes have only been coming in for a few weeks. Peppers, eggplant, basil, lettuces, all speak to summer.

But the glints of gold, red and yellow in the green canopy of the Berkshires are there.

Fall is coming. And I’m okay with that. I love the fall. I love fall foods. I’m not such a big fan of raking. But fall means the second annual Tour de Donut. It also means apple picking. I can turn off the air conditioning, open up the windows, and cook long simmered dishes to put away for winter.

Plus, summer did its job nicely.

By now I feel that last winter was a million years ago. The memory of driving around in the car wearing my big heavy coat is hazy at best. All the cracks on my hands have long since healed. And I’ve been so warm, that winter’s dreaded cold shower has become a summertime delight.

All the same, it has gone by too quickly. There were so many simple things I had planned to do that I never got around to. And I’m not even talking about the onerous ones like household tasks. There were things I wanted to do that never got done.

This was going to be the season to replace our grill. Didn’t happen. I had wanted to get the kids a Snoopy Sno-Cone machine. Luckily they didn’t notice.

Maybe it’s a function of getting older. Time seems to move faster and faster these days. I can’t believe that it was a year ago I wrote this. That seems impossible. Much like it seems impossible I’ve been living in Albany longer than I attended college.

So fall is coming. I’m wondering when I’ll really consider it to be here. Will it be the first big rake? The first week without tomatoes from the CSA? The first time I have to put on a sweater? The first time I drive by an ice cream stand and find it closed?

Actually, I can’t complain too much about that last one. Ice cream stands have been pretty much the bane of my waistline this summer. Yelp now claims I’m the duke of The Snowman. I’ve earned that honestly. It will be good to have a little break.

If only winter seemed to fly by just as quickly, everything would be great.