Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

This day will never be back again. Summer is officially over. Not many more hot days and sticky nights. Did you want to see summer end? I didn’t. Summer is special. A time of regrouping for so many of us. It’s a time for beaches, sandals, shorts, baseball, bull riding and whatever else you choose for your summer fun. Winter seems so long and spring is unpredictable, but summer is summer and too short sometimes. That brings us to autumn.

Do you have a favorite season? Mine would be autumn. There’s a lot to love about the fall, especially if you live in the Midwest like I do, where the seasons have distinct types of changes. Deciduous trees with their changing colors and shedding leaves gives the area a completely different look and feel. Once you notice the first maple leaves change to yellow, then it starts a changin’ quite quickly afterward.

Next thing you know, we have a whole neighborhood full of colorful trees then leaves crunching under foot when they drop. We might smell the familiar odor of burning leaves. The crisp air in the evening, a starry night and a harvest moon, and apple cider seem to speak of an ending, a preparation for a long winter ahead.

Autumn days can be sunny and still hot on occasion, and we can always look forward to Indian summer where we have one last shot at nice weather, reminding us we should have flown south before the howl of November winds. So now that autumn is here, it makes me a little sad, reminding me of short days and long nights. Life quiets down a little and we ease into a different kind of schedule.

Before long the window scrapers will be brought out, and snow tires might be installed. De-icer for the door locks should be searched for and put in a place we’ll remember for the first time we wake to a sheet of ice covering our vehicles. Unless you have a garage, of course. Chances are you don’t have a garage at work, so go buy your lock de-icer. Don’t depend on your key fob to open your door. Yes, this tip comes from experience. Another tip- Don’t keep this de-icer in your car.

Take a few minutes this month, and enjoy the cooler temperatures, the starry nights and the full moons. Visit the beach once or twice more, and stick your toes in the warm sand on a sunny day. Make enough memories of this summer and autumn to last you through the long winter of 2013. Remember we’ll never have this day to do over.