By mid-August, I begin to sense the changes. Always have.
The sun, especially the afternoon sun, is ever so slightly more orange. Just enough to affect the corner of my eye, but it’s there.
Of course, the daylight getting shorter (we all say “the day is getting shorter,” but it’s still 24 hours) is noticeable, especially as the dusk’s earlier arrival accelerates toward the equinox, just over a week ago.
Three days ago, this was early morning in Long Branch, New Jersey:
And while I appreciate my Vermont friends’ appreciation of the changing seasons, a la the stand of Jersey trees pictured atop this post and the many IGs and FBs from New England …
I
Just
Ain’t
Ready.
I want the scene to be more Long Branch than Long Trail.
With a h/t to Al Sleet, tonight it’s gonna be dark, continuing mostly dark and seasonably 60-degrees-ish, but tomorrow (Oct. 2, 2019) the temperature and the Jersey Shore humidity are gunning for the record.
90°F, 32°C.
One more lick of the July lollipop before the 14-day forecast says 65°F high, 55°F low pretty much every day.
My friends in Great Falls, Montana, of course, get the Rocky Mountain roller-coaster ride of 75° one day, followed by a two-day blizzard and an indefinite cold snap. So what’s in reality a gradual change of seasons around here is no cause to whine.
But full disclosure: I get SAD — that’s seasonal affective disorder, not all caps for emphasis — and just as a parent can tell when a tot is about to go from a mild whimper to a full-belly howl, I can tell in August that my season is ending, once again too short. The September flurry of restarted activities — and no matter how long it’s been since you had kids in school, you must conform to the school-year schedule because the rest of the world does — the September flurry is but a minor distraction.
This year, it seems, the leaves are changing, peaking, browning and tumbling more quickly, more abruptly than in years past. I have no empirical evidence; I just sort of know.
Head up to the Northeast Kingdom, O leaf-peepers of 2019. Enjoy the late-arriving fall in Vermont, a place I love.
Nonetheless, I’ll cling to green in 2019 in the Garden State as long as I can.
