Falling for Autumn
[This was written three weeks ago, when the temperature broke, briefly. Then it went up, but now it's down again. Hope falls eternal.]
I know the weather has broken when I can push my shorts to the back of the shelf. From June through August, wearing slacks is just too much in the local heat. And I hate shorts. My religion says that if god had wanted us to wear shorts, he would have given us shorter legs. My objection is that I can't walk where I want to with shorts, because there is poison oak everywhere, salivating at the sight of my unprotected gams. And arms. After three months of wearing t-shirts, I get to enjoy the coziness of long-sleeved shirts again.
Autumn is a wonderful season -- not too cold, not too hot -- and it is the beginning of the rainy season, at least according to the calendar. The weather services tease me with "slight chance of showers" but slight means 20% or less and really anything less than a 50% chance doesn't so much as raise an eyebrow of hope. We haven't had any precipitation since April. Barely a cloud in the sky. It's not natural for people to live where there's no rain for so long. Is it any wonder that I start to sob during Singing in the Rain?
Another reason to pine for precip is that the dust is outta hand. Driving down our dirt-'n-stone road creates a swirling dust storm behind the car. There really is no point to trying to keep the vehicles clean; the dust is attracted to a newly-washed car like iron filings to a magnet. But I went to the car wash anyway, to remove the thick residue of insects from a recent trip to Sacramento. I was kinda annoyed to see before me in the line a government vehicle. Why are my tax dollars going to a car wash? Why aren't people on welfare washing government cars instead?
A coupla guys who were pre-soaping and scrubbing the cars before they went through the machines -- says a lot about the mechanical cleaners, doesn't it? -- have been there for years. One is in his thirties, the other has another ten more years on him; both wear wedding rings. I worked in a car wash one summer. What do these people do for hope? They probably wouldn't like my idea about taking away government business, and they've certainly gotta appreciate the business that summer brings.
The end of the Redding bake cycle puts everyone in a better frame of mind. At the supermarket, five outta six of the people who passed between me and the items I was perusing on the shelves said "Excuse me." A friend said the courtesy was because the new Safeway simply attracts a higher level of clientele. Mebbe, but I think everybody has got to feel more sociable when the temperature stays below 90.
Another thing good about the mercury falling is that it makes for better flying. When it's cooler than hotter, the air is more condensed. That means that the propeller has something more to chew on, which means you can get off the ground and generally fly more efficiently and safely. Plus, the fog that hugs the coast most of the summer will now not show up in the morning, making more places by the Pacific accessible to my aerial incursions. Yippee, it's time to get my leather bomber jacket out of the closet.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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