Autumn Activities

Although my calendar indicated that fall began on September 22nd, it really didn't show up until yesterday. It's pretty amazing to me how quickly the weather changes on the prairies. On Saturday, I had the air conditioning humming as I baked and cooked for my supper company. Sunday found me bumping up the thermostat so I could combat the windy, cool weather. Welcome to North Dakota Autumn!
Autumn tends to be anyone's guess here on the Plains. We could enjoy a long, beautiful view of the changing leaves or we go directly from shorts to parkas. No middle ground. Fall isn't my favorite season, as it points to winter, which I can honestly say is my least favorite of the three seasons we enjoy here.
I have noticed since late August that the days are getting shorter. It's so much harder to pull yourself out of the nest in the morning when it's dark outside. Even Lucy, the puppy, has better sense than to be up before dawn. I know that I possess plant-like tendencies - I really need the natural light and I really like it when people talk to me routinely. Getting up in the dark, leaving the house for work in the dark and coming home in the darkness is such drudgery. Many people in this part of the country struggle with SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's no wonder that people get depressed when you have only eight hours of daylight each day and all of those are spent looking out your office window.
Another fall tradition that grows weary is the Christmas displays that come right on the tail of Halloween. I'm not a grinch. I love Christmas - the lights, the family and the nativity. However, why can't we wait until after Thanksgiving before putting up the display trees and advertising Christmas bargains. Extending the holidays to profit from the holiday brings a very anticlimatic feeling come December 25th.
Flu season arrives about the time that October rolls around. We never stopped seaonal flu cases in our area, and now we are being asked to get not one, but two vaccinations - one for the seasonal flu and one for the H1N1 (swine flu). Knock on wood, I haven't suffered from the flu for a couple of years. I recently spoke with an older gentleman from my church who described his bout of flu and said that at one point he was afraid that he wouldn't die! Add nausea, vomiting and, to put it gently, lower G.I. symptoms, and you would hope that Jesus comes back really soon! Our youth group had to cancel our annual trip to the Senior High event in South Dakota as the reality set in that getting stricken kids home six hours in a car could be a very long trip for everyone! That doesn't take into consideration that the chaperone/driver (i.e. me) could catch this bug and have to drive home six hours in a car. I have stocked up on Germ-X and trying to avoid people who look sick.
There are plenty of things about fall I enjoy. Papa's Pumpkin Patch is a wonderful place - you and your children can play on the haybale stacks, wander through the thousands of pumpkins for sale and watch the pumpkin cannon hurl the pumpkins toward a huge bale target. Lucy and I are going to get our pictures taken at the Patch on Sunday as part of the Humane Society's fundraiser. I enjoy Halloween parties and a chance to dress up. Really, as adults we don't have a lot of opportunities to wear costumes. What a shame. I enjoy playing cards in the evening and watching a fire.
I hope that enjoy our two week of Autumn. Get out and walk through the crunchy leaves. Carve a pumpkin. Jump on a hayride, if you can. Before you know it, the meteorologists will be using curse words like wind chill and frostbite!