All The Signs Are There

A change is in the air. Today is the first day of fall. It’s the autumnal equinox, when the sun is directly over the equator, and day and night are of equal length. I’d know that without a calendar, people, because all the signs are there.

When I step on my porch to have my morning coffee, the air is cool. It’s only 80 degrees. Y’all, that’s a welcome relief from the sweltering Texas summer. If you go outside in August, the air is so hot and muggy you can barely breathe. I know y’all have heard all the jokes about the Texas weather like, “If you don’t like it, wait a minute and it will change.” Those aren’t jokes; they are a natural fact.

We can’t put away our summer clothes in Texas, because we can have “shorts weather” in the middle of January. The weather here is as changeable as a menopausal woman’s moods (trust me on this one). Union Civil War General Philip Henry Sheridan is quoted as saying, “If I owned Hell and Texas I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.” I’m a fifth generation Texan, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

Last spring, my husband and I went on a trip to Galveston. On the way down, we snapped pictures of the beautiful wildflowers on the highway. Two days later (on Easter Sunday) as we came home, we snapped pictures of the snow covering the wildflowers! The Texas weather changes in a heartbeat, and it’s not a good indicator of the “season.” But, we know when seasons are changing because of other indicators.

The squirrels in my yard are going nuts as they frantically bury acorns all over the yard. Some folks say that they are putting those away to eat during the winter. I’m not sure. I think they are trying to re-forest my yard by planting trees, because every spring I dig up hundreds of inch long oak trees. So, the squirrels are either avid environmentalists, or their pea brains forgot where they hid their stash.

The squirrels are also frantically trying to chew their way through my siding to get into my attic! They want to spend the winter romping over my ceilings playing tag. You might think squirrels are cute (I do, too), but they are just rats with cute fluffy tails. I hope they are warm in the winter, but not in my attic.

There are other signs that it is Fall. Ragweed is in full bloom. It’sallergy season, a fact made obvious by all the people with watery eyes, sneezing, and sniffles. My nose is so red that when I go outside, the hummingbirds buzz me thinking I’m the feeder. I am their feeder in the summer; I put out sugar water for them. But, I stopped doing that a week or so ago because they are supposed to fly south for the winter. I know if I had wings that I would!

I always envy those pictures of the lovely fall colors on the trees in other states. I’m amazed that the leaves on the trees gradually turn to brilliant yellows, reds and golds. That doesn’t happen here in Texas, especially if we have had a dry year. Or, for that matter, if we had a wet year. Usually, the leaves turn straight from green to brown. Then, the fall winds come and knock the leaves out of my trees and bury my yard.

I tell you what, the leaves do get deep in my yard, because we have a lot of trees. One year my neighbor’s chihuahua stepped into my yard and disappeared. We didn’t find him until the winter winds blew the leaves around. By then, it was so cold that he had frozen solid. He turned into a little “pupsicle.”

I don’t rake the leaves, because it’s a never ending task. I figure when God wants those leaves to be somewhere else, She’ll put them there. My neighbor doesn’t rake, either. He uses a leaf blower to blow the leaves into the street, so that you need a snow plow to drive through the neighborhood. I love the fact that as soon as he is finished the wind usually picks up and blows the leaves right back in his yard. Serves him right.

When I was a child, the sure sign that it was fall was when the “punkin patches” went up on the side of the road. Farmers sold their pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns and fall decorations. In the stores, the Halloween displays were erected to sell costumes and decorations for the holiday.

That’s no longer a good indicator. Halloween decorations have been on sale since June, side by side with garish Christmas decorations! The stores around here have had full Christmas displays out since before Labor Day. That’s right, Wal Mart shoppers, there are only 92 days until Christmas! Does anybody else hate that holiday hype as much as I do?

Yes, the seasons are changing, and soon we will be snuggled in for the winter. It will be “sweater weather” before you know it. We will have firewood stacked high so that we can be toasty warm on a cold winter’s day (there are only two or three of those around here, so we have to be ready for them). We will be thinking about cooking stews, chicken and dumplin’s and chili (the comfort foods for winter).

I know when winter is coming, because all the signs are there. I’ll notice that my neighbors all have out their Christmas lights and my street will be lit up like the Las Vegas strip. I ‘magine that will be sometime around next week.

Other posts you might enjoy:

1. Make Like A Tree And Leave
2. Thursday Thirteen #47. Signs of a True “Roadhouse”
3. Isn’t It Fun To Have Houseplants?
4. Doubled Mint
5. Only The Good

Tagged as: autumn, humor, Silly Is My Middle Name, Talkin' 'bout Texas, weather