As time goes by

I received an email from my sister Cindy who lives in Colorado.  She said, "The autumn here was a bit longer and more enjoyable for everyone this year".  That makes me think autumn is a done deal in Colorado and they are moving into winter. It also makes me wonder, did it start in August in order to be a bit longer? No thank you!!!  All I can say is, better her than me.  It's just mid-October.   When I lived in New England, the peak season for viewing the beautiful changing leaves was mid-September.  I can attest to the fact that autumn in New England is spectacular.  Of all the places I have lived, New England takes top prize for fall foliage.  But the winter there is usually so harsh, it more than obliterates any warm spot I may have had in my heart for the New England area.


It is noticeably autumn here in North Carolina.  The mornings and nights are cooler.  The days can still get toasty, but usually remain moderate.  The leaves on the dogwoods have turned and some of the other trees have begun to color.  It'll be awhile yet until all the leaves are changed, and considering how dry it's been during the last few months, it's entirely possible they won't be very colorful this year.  It is probably peak leaf season in the North Carolina mountains right now.


North Carolina has four distinct seasons, which is one of the reasons I enjoy living here.  When I was younger, summer was my favorite time of the year.  I've always been a "water baby" and summer to me meant beaches and pools.  I could take the heat.  I've never been able to take cold.  But now the summer's heat is a bit much for my aging body.  It may have something to do with those damn hot flashes during which I generate enough of my own heat to keep a family of four warm for several months.  If we ever figure out a way to harness menopausal hot flashes, we will have an organic renewable energy source capable of providing heat for a large sector of the universe.  Where was I?  Oh, yea, summer is no longer my favorite time of year.  It's a toss up between spring and fall.


We can usually notice the initial awakening of spring by the middle of February.  There may be some winter cold yet to come, but the signs are there.  Spring is such a vibrant burst of renewal.  Green is my favorite color, and greens abound in spring. Spring changes the bleak and dreary brown/gray world into a wonderland.  In North Carolina spring is like a fairy tale.  Even the most modest homes seem to be surrounded by forsythia and azaleas in bloom.  The area is ripe with dogwoods and Bradford pears and crabapples and flowering cherries and redbuds and countless other flowering trees.  Every street you venture is another riot of colorful blooms, each more spectacular than the last.  Unfortunately, spring also brings turbulent, unsettled weather with numerous thunderstorms and always the possibility of tornadoes.  I fear tornadoes more than any other of Mother Nature's bad moods.


Summer here is usually long and hot and dry.  There are, of course, afternoon storms on occasion, but they seldom do much to alleviate the heat.  Basically, I think the only thing the rain does in the summer is make the grass grow twice as fast so you have to mow more often.  Our friend, Tim, has a band called White Light.  He plays guitar and sings, and he writes many of the songs they play.  One year, he wrote a song he titled "Waiting on the Rain", which epitomizes summers in North Carolina.  If you'd like to hear some of their songs you can find them at http://www.reverbnation.com/whitelightsite but unfortunately "Waiting on the Rain" is not one of the songs they have posted.


Autumn in North Carolina sneaks up on you.  You begin to notice the days getting shorter.  You start to notice the trees are not such a vibrant green any longer.  Then the leaves start to turn.  It slowly gets cooler, though we have had some years when Indian Summer could convince you Hell was right around the corner.  Autumn is a time for slowing down, taking it all in, moseying through life at a leisurely pace and enjoying the world around you.


Winter is usually short.  For many years, winter in North Carolina was fairly mild.  Cold snaps typically last only a few days, and though it may get below freezing it usually doesn't stay there long.  The ground rarely freezes deeper than an inch or two.  Where we live, which is smack in the center of the state from both north and south and east and west, we are more likely to get sleet and freezing rain than we are to get snow.  We seldom have snow before the end of the year.  Last year we had snow in December and January and February, and I'm not sure, but we may have had snow in March.  A typical accumulation in our part of the world is two to three inches.  Several times last winter we found ourselves with six inches or more.  It was one of the wettest, snowiest winters we've had while I've lived here, but it was not one of the coldest.  And, though it may seem unending at the time, winter starts late and ends early.  Now, if summer could just figure out how to wait until June and get over by September, this would be paradise.
  
I don't notice the passage of time so much now that I am homebound.  Each day just sort of slides into the next, each week is pretty much the same as the one before, the months start and end and I've not bothered to notice.  But now that I am older, time seems to pass more quickly even if I'm not paying attention.  I just woke up one day and discovered it's mid-October, on the calendar and in my life.