“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Even though we unofficially said goodbye to summer on Labor Day, today is the actual first day of Autumn.
There’s much to love about Autumn. The colors of the leaves as they change…well, before they turn to an ugly brown and cover my yard.
Pumpkins, even if the whole pumpkin spice thing is over done.
Fall weather…football…fall festivals, which are sort of Halloween carnivals in drag…and Halloween.
What’s not to love except for the afore mentioned leaves?
As I write this, I can look up at the window and be reminded of how much work i need to do to get the yard ready for last winter…not to mention this winter.
I have a list. And, I’ll get to it.
Just maybe not this season.
I’m showing myself a little grace. Not only because of the COVID lockdown, but also the summer’s unpleasantness.
I’ll get to the yard. Eventually.
If that’s a problem, I can show you where the rake and. leaf blower are.
Oh, sorry, did I type that out loud?
Well, as long as I did I might as well note that I could use a new weed eater and a wheelbarrow.
Eventually.
I don’t like saying goodbye to summer. I never have.
I am a child of the summer, and I need to be close to the ocean.
The reason we got around to this conversation doesn’t matter, but the other day my wife said “what if we moved to…a certain city?”. She wasn’t entirely serious.
But in case she was, I reminded her that two hours is already too far away from the beach.
Like you, I have a lot of projects I want to get done this fall.
Probably also like you, I’m not. going to get to them.
And you know what? That’s okay
I’m gearing up for the Christmas season. No, it’s not too early for Santa to start getting ready. I have my first photo shoot on Sunday.
I’ve started watching the Christmas movies and may or may not have turned on the Christmas Pandora stations.
It will be here before you know it.
Today is not just the beginning of Autumn.
It’s also the birthday of Bilbo Baggins and his nephew Frodo. I may or may not have mentioned them before.
I probably won’t watch The MOVIES (™) again before the New Year. I read the books last year, and I think I’ve been through The MOVIES (™) twice already this year.
No, not THOSE movies, if you know what I mean.
I do have to admit that there’s a bit of encouragement in the first story. Well, The Hobbit is infinitely better than the movies by the same name.
But when you look at the timeline of when Bilbo departed on his first adventure until he departed with Frodo at the Gray Havens, well, it took almost eighty years for Frodo to hand Bilbo’s book to Sam and say “the last pages are for you.”
Work with me here, but it sort of makes me feel better about my unfinished novel(s).
No, I don’t think I have another eighty years to finish, but then again I’m pretty sure I’m not facing a dragon or a dark lord.
I hope.
Anyway, Happy Birthday to my Hobbit friends.
It’s Wednesday. It’s Fall.
There is work to do.
Let’s get to it.