The end of summer -- finally

I am a native New Englander. I was born and raised less than 10 miles north of Boston, and I've lived here all my life, except for two years in Syracuse for school (New England west, IMHO). Therefore, I have a New England mentality. I distrust strangers, warm on the inside and a bit brittle and cold on the outside with them. I believe in pulling myself up by my bootstraps and that anything worth doing is doing right. I worship LL Bean. I refer to six inches of snow as a dusting. And so on.

So this summer thing -- well, it's kind of a novelty to us New Englanders. Don't get me wrong: When there's a foot of snow on the ground and I haven't left the house in two days because the windchill is below zero, I yearn for shorts and sandals and going in my pool. But I do find that a few weeks of really hot weather is my limit. Then I can't wait for it to hurry up and get cold, for fall textures and clothes and raking leaves and going apple picking and drinking cider and getting ready for Halloween and ultimately, winter.

Fall is easily my favorite time of year. On September 1, I started putting up my fall decorations. I had friends call me too eager. But honestly, fall feels like home to me. We're going into the home stretch of the year. The kids are back in school. The nights are great for sleeping. The TV shows I love return. Life feels normal again. And of course, I am a fall baby, so I have my birthday and my favorite holiday, Christmas, to look forward to.

One of my favorite expressions is from Thoreau: Live in each season as it passes, drink the wine, taste the fruit. Summer has its place. I enjoy it, especially night swimming in my pool. I enjoy not dealing with winter viruses and slipping all over the road when I drive and wearing eight layers to go the mailbox. But bring on the fall. I love it. Like any good New Englander should.

Now nothing seems as strange as when the leaves began to change

Love you, Kid Rock.

Lupus Walk was good, if wet -- yes, they had the walk anyway, despite the rain, and I was soaked to the bone at the end of it. Hey, if my husband can go through chemo, I can walk three miles in the rain. We raised more than $700 for lupus research. That's all that really matters.

This weather is glorious. Absolutely glorious. I have long sleeves, long pants and boots on. I love it. No air conditioning at night, no sweating. You cannot beat fall in New England.

My little pumpkin

My mom and dad came over to visit Sunday. Mom and I were walking around the front yard, admiring the mums and plants and such, when she noticed something orange. "Is that a pumpkin growing in your yard?" she asked. Sure enough, it was a lil' cutie, flecked with green. I had noticed the plant growing while weeding but didn't know what it was. We put out pumpkins every year, so one of the seeds must have germinated. I am thrilled -- I love lining my walk and stairs with the orange.

And speaking of the other little pumpkin: Boo has his first cold. He's also got a double ear infection and is getting over the croup -- doc gave him a steroid shot Monday, and at least he isn't barking every night. As my mom says, he will get over it quickly; me, not so much. As any mom knows, it's agonizing hearing your child barking like a seal in the middle of the night. He's so full of snoot and his ears are so full that he's swinging at us when we try to feed him a bottle. I hope he feels better soon, for both our sakes.

Red, gold and green

Yes, lovin' would be easy if my colors were light like dreams, but that's not the point of this post. The trees seems like they are really slow to turn this year, don't they? What foliage there is looks spectacular, but it's pretty spotty. That's one of my favorite parts of fall, so I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe I ought to go north.

An all-pumpkin morning

I love anything with pumpkin in it. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin ice cream -- you get the picture. We had a dinner party Sunday, and I baked a pumpkin bread. I had to give it away to our guests, else we would have gobbled the whole thing up.

I woke up this morning with a pumpkin jones that would not quit. So I stopped at my friendly neighborhood Dunkin' Donuts to get a pumpkin latte and pumpkin muffin. Can I just tell you how good they were? I gave up caffeine, so the latte was decaf, but it was still amazing. Pumpkin rules all that is holy.

That is all.

Brain Droppings
Ahh, the title of an off-color book by one of my heroes, George Carlin. (Is anything that man does not off-color?)

Y'know, you anticipate summer all year long. Then it's here and it flies by. It always reminds me of a poem by another one of my heroes, the late great Shel Silverstein:

Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Chirping robin, budding rose.
Here comes summer,
Here comes summer,
Gentle showers, summer clothes.
Here comes summer
Here comes summer —
Whoosh — shiver — there it goes.

Fall is really my favorite time of the year. I love fall clothes, fall colors, apple picking, Halloween, crisp air, burning leaves, the show of the New England foliage. There's just something about it that appeals to me. And no one does fall like we do here in these six states in the corner of the country.

Had breakfast with M with an old, old friend this morning. She told me about all the people in HS I couldn't have cared less about that she has stayed in touch with. But we had a great time. I miss having girlfriends.

M ordered me the Lucinda Bassett program, "Attacking Anxiety." Lucinda is yet another one of my heroes. She overcame severe, debilitating panic attacks; agorophobia; and depression to help others, and has developed a program with therapists that helps change the way you think. As an anxiety and depression sufferer since I was eight years old, but with an optimistic, hopeful heart, I really am looking forward to starting the four-month program. I've lost 10 pounds on WW and am trying to lose 15 more; why not work on the inside of me as well? I'll keep you posted.