Best Words Ever

This morning on KERA - our local public radio station - I heard the best words ever:

"A high of 78"

It can only improve from here.

Get out and enjoy the north wind.  Look for geese. Think of better times to come.

Could be......Who knows?

Really, friends.  I never intended this blog to go fallow. Life has had other ideas.

For now, I'm going to aim for once-a-month...kind of the post-menopausal version of cramps.

I've been in a tub of glum for a good long while.  The details aren't really interesting (even to me), so you shall be spared. I am, sadly, not one of those writers who is spurred on by adversity.  If I were, you wouldn't have enough time to read about 2012.

But this week feels different.

Fall approacheth.

I've blogged before (here, here, here, and here for example ) about my deep-seated love of autumn.

My fellow hell-dwellers here in Texas can attest to the cruel trick Nature played on us recently, that morning when we woke up to weather in the high 50s.  One of fall's harbingers in these parts is the first time you walk outdoors and find the Air Out There cooler than the Air Inside Here.  While it is true that the temperatures are marginally cooler, one morning does not fall make. Especially if the afternoon brings a high way up in the 90s.

This morning, however, I saw a more reliable sign.  The light has changed.

I am seriously impaired when it comes to the visual arts.  My stick figures are below the 50th percentile.  I don't have the vocabulary to describe this, so bear with me.

Summer light here is harsh.  It's white. It's brutal and unforgiving.  It can start as early as March and last into November in a bad year.

Fall light is softer. It's golden. It gilds things. It flatters. It can be as hot and uncomfortable as summer light, but does not bring the misery.

Today brought golden light.

And the acorns in my yard are twice the size they were last year.

So fall must be close.

And maybe -- just maybe -- we'll see winter.  Then I will have no choice but to cheer up!