The Dying Season

Bill's blog, amongst other things, got me thinking about the fall season. I've always thought of fall as the dying season, but not in a bad way. But that's what it is, with leaves falling off the tree, grass getting less green. If you compare the seasons to times of day, fall would be the the twilight, the dying of the day.

Used to be I was all about summer. And to an extent I pretty much still am. I love the hot days and the fact that it doesn't get dark until late. I used to dread the coming of fall, largely for the onset of the cold (which I'm not a fan of), but for another reason as well: residual memories. Because, you see, fall was always when school started. Goodbye summer freedom, and hello homework. When I think of fall memories, the first one that always comes up is of playing football out in front of my house after school, with a slight bite of cold in the air as it quickly got dark. And then having to go in and do that dreaded homework. It's a bittersweet memory at best.

But despite that, the past few years, I've really started appreciating fall. It's rapidly becoming my second favorite season (despite the fact that it's also the most depressing season to be single, for some odd reason.) But let's talk about some of the good:

- Those cooler nights that are so good for sleeping. That's my one real beef with summer: it's hard to sleep when it's hot. The past few weeks, we've had a hint of fall in the air at night. A nice cool breeze through an open window just has me sleeping that much better. (Although it's slightly disconcerting that we've been having it so regularly in August.)

- The start of the football season. Nuff said.

- Octoberfests. Hands down my favorite kind of beer. Sam Adams (despite the ugliest label in beer) and Harpoon (which for some reason gets me drunk quicker than any other beer.)

- The Little Hearts pub crawl. Kevin's yearly foray into drinking for charity. 20 bars, 10+ hours, funny (and missing) memories. One of my favorite yearly outings.

- Cider. Or, more accurately, the thought of cider. Every year, as it starts to get cooler, I think about how awesome warm cider would be. And then never have any. But I always think about it and it's always a nice thought.

- The smell of cold. You know what I'm talking about. That slightly sharp, somehow clean, smell. I like it in the fall, because it's more a hint of cold, and not the full-fledged thing. Once we get a few months in and it starts to get real, I immediately get sick of it, but it's cool (no pun intended) for a little while.

- Socks. I have a couple of pairs of really comfortable heavy socks that I can't wear until it starts getting cold. They rule.

- Halloween. I still dig the vibe around that holiday. And October in general. It's the month where I load up my Netflix queue with horror movies.

That's all I have for now, but tis a good list, it is.