Fall. It seems to sit atop everyone’s favorite season list. Even the
Grinch is most likely “happy, happy, happy” when it comes to autumn.
Other seasons have faults, spring being too windy, summer hot and buggy,
and those of us daring to proclaim winter as our “season of seasons” are
continually on the receiving end of the “evil eye”, an over the top of
the glasses “You’ve got to be kidding” stare.
Aah but fall. When it comes to
a season irresistible, autumn is in a class by itself. What with
winter, spring and summer continually falling short of expectations,
fall, it’s blue skies and oh so comfortable temperatures are greeted
with a joyous surprise usually reserved for moments like discovering a
twenty-dollar bill in the pocket of pants not worn since winter. Were
fall a politician, there’d be no term limits. In a beauty pageant,
autumn would not only win the title of Miss America, but also be elected
Miss Congeniality by her fellow contestants.
While autumn’s official arrival
was a week and a half ago, here in the Rockies, today, the first of
October, is when autumn bursts forth in full glory. The high country
quakies are ablaze on this first day of the month and will gradually
move their brilliant yellows down valley until, come October’s end, our
lower elevations will be bathed in color. Wonder of wonders, even the
despised tamarisk and Russian Olive give off a not unpleasant autumnal
glow in the sunlight of a late October afternoon.
October is fall’s feature month.
September gets a late start and by November the leaves have disappeared
and the lawn and garden gear, along with the deck furniture, are stored
till spring. November has more of a winter feel. But October is the
best of all worlds. It begins, not with the searing heat of summer, but
features daytime temps still warm enough to permit the wardrobe of July
and August, t-shirt, shorts and sandals. Thirty-one days later, come
October’s end, we’ve transitioned to “see your breath” evenings that
foretell winter’s arrival as costumed munchkins are chaperoned through
the neighborhood for the much anticipated evening of Halloween trick or
treating.
Not to wax poetic of days gone
by but October’s of yesterday did have a pleasant, gone for the sake of
the environment, nostril nostalgia. The days of raking leaves into a
pile for burning are as vacant from our lives as the smoky haze those
evening fires left hanging in our valley.
Today, October is high school
games that mean something since conference play is in full swing.
Fall, and October are a time for homecoming mums, taking the kids to a
corn maze and pumpkin patch, ski swaps and emerald green golf courses so
beautiful they, almost, take the sting out of a double bogey. It’s the
beginning of the soup season, time for the Buckskin Network and one last
pedal over East Orchard Mesa.
If only the Rockies in the World
Series could happen with Yankee like regularity every fall rather than
appear to be a once in a lifetime event.
October may be missing the Rox
but hey, it’s still a month that really rocks. Enjoy.
