Baby it's cold outside...

Autumn. My favorite season.
When I was a kid, one hot ass summer in Spokaloo, I ended up with a heat rash. I called it being allergic to the sun. If I was in direct sunlight for more than about 5 minutes, my skin (arms mostly) would break out in a rash of small red bumps that itched horribly. Mom would coat me with caladryl lotion.
To this day I have an aversion to being in direct sunlight too long, having cloying slimy lotions on my skin.
I burn very well in limited sun exposures and there is history of malignant melenoma in my family so I really am not the summer kid.
I love spring, but it heralds summer so it is pretty and a time of renewal and rebirth, but not my favorite.
I tried to think back on why Autumn is my favorite.
I have great memories of kicking through DRY leaves walking to and from school. Not the wet sodden slug laden leaves in Hamsterville, nor the tick laden leaves in New York.
I would walk alot when I was a teen, taking my best friend, Kelli the springer spaniel for long walks down a tree lined boulevard in Spokaloo. The cold bite in the air foretold of coming snow, holidays, freedom from school for a few weeks. I could hear the swish of small whale courderoy pants and the hiss of my arms swinging in my nylon jacket as I carried my book bag and clarinet to school. The cold still morning in my home town were inviting, promising adventure and safetyin a weaker winter sun.
Long pine needles woudl fall from the pine trees in our back yard, hiding the pine cones that, in the spring, would crash in the cacaphony of the lawn mower, shotting the core out at an angle hitting windows, brothers and the dog.
It is the bite in the air, more than anything. You get up in the morning and step out to go to school or work and there is so little moisture in the air. Hamsters up in Hamsterville don't get this often, it is just to damp there. The skin on the backs of your hands tighten a bit and you feel a burn of cold on your cheeks.
Now, in the Northeast, it is the colors of the leaves.
Puppette gamboling in the leaves.
Bugsy snorting and scenting squirrels while rustling, in his own diminutive way, through the leaves.
Autumn.

Enjoy your Autumn. Enjoy the calm before the storm of the Holy-daze season.

C