Autumn

When does fall actually begin?  For some, there’s a hard and fast date, the autumnal equinox on September 22nd.  I don’t buy it. Real life is more fluid than that.  Sometimes summer lingers on and other years cold weather arrives early.  You can’t set your watch by the changing of the seasons.  It’s not like the weather checks the calendar one morning and says, “well, today let’s start being cold.”  It happens when it happens. 

So, how do you decide when fall has started?  I’ve got a surefire method for telling when fall has actually arrived.  It never fails. 

I don’t automatically call it fall when I feel that first chill in the air.  It’s not the cool breeze or leaves turning brown and falling from the trees that signals the arrival of autumn.  It’s not when I notice the sun going down earlier.  It’s neither the start of football season nor the end of baseball.  Nope, none of those things are my bona fide indicator that the season has changed.

I know that it is finally fall when the dog starts sleeping on the bed and leaning up against me.  Fall is upon us.