Seasons ...

As September nears I realize that summer is rapidly fading and fall is just around the corner. Already the mornings are darker and cooler as I take that 2 1/2 mile bike ride into work each day. Soon the roads will be filled once more with the yellow blur of passing school buses and the steady stream of frazzled parents shuttling their children to school. I think my growing sense of melancholy as September approaches has become heightened since I left Southern California 6 years ago, a fact I attribute to living in places where the change of seasons can be truly seen and felt. Now I know my dear friend Mia is going to remind me that California has seasons, too, but as memory serves there were only two -- Warm and Hotter-than-Hell, with not a lot in between. (Sorry, that's just how I remember it!) In any case, I feel strangely torn between sadness at summer's passing, and longing for the shifting colors of autumn ...