Don’t take my summer away!

So here it is, the day after Labor Day, and already I am in summer withdrawals. In Florida, the kids went back to school the first week of August, and as you travel northward along the Eastern seaboard, in a steadily staggered stream, kids begin the new school year. In most places, this signals the unofficial-official start of Fall, even though the autumnal equinox is still 16 days away.
Already, from friends and the media, I am hearing wistful pleas for the crisp cool weather that true autumn brings. Their desires range from wearing warm snuggly sweaters, to walking through crunchy fallen leaves to lighting their fireplaces.
Since moving north, fall signals mixed emotions in me. While I look forward to my birthday, Halloween, and federal holidays galore, it is with great dismay that I watch as the daylight hours begin to shorten to miniscule proportions, the leaves begin to fall from the trees – leaving bare, twisted, and skeletal tree forms, and temperatures dip below the comfortable 60 degree mark. It always seems as if spring takes forever to get here, doesn’t stay nearly long enough, and summer is fading before you even have a chance to get into playing.
For the last 6 years, I have wondered, where did my summer go? And here I am again, wondering that same thought once more. I console myself that we have a month of transition between summer and fall — Indian summer it is called in some places — where the daytime temperatures are still pleasant, but the night-time temperature begin to dip, requiring a jacket of some sort. Soon, it will be fall, followed by that most dreaded of all seasons — winter.
I take comfort in the fact that soon the haunting season begins, and while GoatMan Hollow is on hiatus this fall due to a move to a larger and permanent site, we have numerous haunt trips in neighboring states. Too soon, there was an unacustomed chill in the air this morning as Abby went for her morning stroll, still evident when I left for work, requiring a sweater when I sat down at my desk. Fall – it has begun.