The air is cool today. The sunshine is warm with a much softer light than usual. Sure signs that Fall has arrived in Florida.
I love Indiana. It's my childhood stomping ground. But I don't often miss it...except at this time of the year.
I long for the seasons - spring, summer, winter and fall. How I miss watching Mother Nature announce the arrival of Halloween with pumpkin stands and hay bales, followed by Thanksgiving and then a snowy Christmas.
Here, we have different seasons - lobster season, hurricane season and tourist season. And we have the variable weather to go with them - hot and humid, hotter and more humid, and so damn hot and humid you can barely breathe.
Our trees' leaves don't change colors. They live forever or die a sudden death at the hands of one of our many tree 'hat-rackers' in town. It's an ugly sight lending no indication of the time of year it might be.
If we had any, we'd be sweating our balls off down here. In Indiana they're getting our their mittens and winter apparel.
When it drops below 75 here, in Florida, we get excited to wear our sweaters and scarves. They feel good early in the morning. But by lunch you could wring the perspiration out of your underwear and everyone fooled by the morning air, starts their strip-tease. Off come the layers, discard the socks, burn that jacket. So baffling to have bathing suit weather in October. Hmmm. Maybe a string bikini for a halloween costume? Disgusting!
I dream of red, yellow and orange leaves. I dream of the smell of burning leaves. No. Wait. That's the smell of the Everglades burning from 90 degree temps and no rain in a month. There go my allergies - looking forward to nasal drip and the feel of a vice-grip on my temples.
Ahhh...Autumn in the south.
Maybe I'll just turn my air conditioner down to 'really cold', close my eyes, and pretend that I'm a Hoosier once again.
