I haven't had a reason to go shopping much over the last week. I've been less wasteful than usual, and I've stuck to cooking foods that I already have in the pantry and fridge. No need to go to the grocery store. Most of our work on the cabin has been salvaged materials, from the Restore shops mostly, and we had tubs of screws and nails and whatnot. No need to go to Lowe's. Today, on my way to get crickets to feed to the anoles (something I didn't have in abundance already), I detoured to the grocery store, to turn in a winning scratch ticket and to buy eye drops. I pulled into an executive parking place (meaning the first one in a row, so I got the shade of the stunted, asphalt-choked tree), and I glanced at the front of the store. I became aware of a high-pitched sound, something along the lines of "yeeeeeeeeee!!!" It sank in that it was me, squealing excitedly to see the big display of baskets of mums on one side, and stacks of ceramic jack-o-lanterns on the other. Just like the first bud breaking through on the lilacs in spring, the first arrival of autumn staples gets me every single year. I must control my impulses, and not buy a whole bunch of new ones. I have some planted in the front gardens from years past, and they will be blooming soon enough. Besides, I still have a stack of plants sitting on the front stairs that never got planted when I failed to get the front grass pulled up as planned. (Hopefully I'm not too late in the season to get more square feet of that done, though.) It just thrills me, as it always does, to see the signs that summer is coming to an end. It means cool nights, which we are already getting. It means long sleeved shirts (in my favorite colors of plums, mustards, and rusts). It means fall foods, although I am on record not liking "pumpkin spiced" anything. The spices, yes. The pumpkin flavored food additive, hell no. A few days ago, my neighbor said we were almost to the "wearing sweatpants every evening" part of the year, and he and I all but high-fived about hitting that calendar milestone.
There were several brutally hot summer days, that were absolutely no fun to deal with in an old brick house with no air conditioning. They felt like they would never end. But if I am to be honest, there weren't that many of them. They were earlier in the year than I would have ever expected. The heat broke more than a week ago, and it's actually sort of cold at night, with the windows open and a fan blowing in. Still, it's always such a glorious time, when I get to say hello to autumn and tell summer not to let the door hit it on the way out.
I was the greeter at Rotary today. I'm always surprised by how many people don't know me by name yet, but I shouldn't be. There are a bunch of them I couldn't name without a badge on their lapels either. That said, that group does feel like a big family to me, and it is so much better being there when I can just hang out and socialize, rather than stress over transcribing every word so I can translate it into the newsletter. I'm starting to feel like myself there again. I missed me.
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