A Head Start

I can't hold out any longer. I'm starting fall now. After work, I'm going to take my autumn decorations out of storage. The temperature the past day or two has been unusually cool, and I can't resist the gravitational pull of the fall season anymore.

The leaves don't even change color, so it doesn't really matter when I declare it to be fall; it's all me anyway. All the stores are putting out their fall lines, so it's not like it's going to look much more autumnal from here on out. I might as well go for it. Summers here are so unbearably hot and long that it's no wonder I'm craving a change of season. Summer wears out its welcome pretty quick, but it just... won't... let... up.

It just doesn't get seasonal in Texas. I've been told that Texas has four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Deer Season.

Well, I declare it autumn. NOW. I have a long list of autumn-specific activities and personal rituals to accomplish. First, is the inaugural binge decorating with music. For whatever reasons, I have long since (accidentally) established the association of Baroque music and the Irish band Lunasa with autumn. Why break the habit? Yeah, it's an arbitrary association, but I'm running with it.

I missed out on a lot of things last year, but maybe this year I can find a corn maze. I already have my Halloween costume, but I ain't sayin' what it is.

I have to be careful about pacing myself from this head start, or else I'll be craving Christmas before Halloween even arrives. But, seriously, this year's "Octoberness" activities list is the longest yet. Now, if only the pumpkin patches would reappear...

It's fall. As far as I'm concerned, September is over already. I have so declared it.

"You can either profit by this... or be destroyed."