August Coming to an End

With temperatures teetering between the high 90s and 100 degrees and the air packed with humidity the month of August has been a time to stay in doors. School started back and I've done my best to stay sequestered either at home or in my classroom. August should be the last month of summer, not the first month of Fall, but I suspect powers greater than the weight of my preferences have prevailed. When I was in school, we returned to school in September which in the South is just as hot as August. Much of my grade school days were spent in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where September was really fall. In fact most of the summer months were like fall. By October, snow flurries were a common sight outside our double-paned windows. The most difficult adjustment I had to make when my family returned to Northwest Florida in 1966 was to stop thinking that September promised some relief from the miserable heat.

Here I am again, thinking that September will bring cooler days. My experience tells me that the 3rd week in October is more likely to bring the wondrous days when leaves change color and winter sneaks into our backyards like a flurry of sparrows. Of course, the weather can moderate and even have that certain "feel" when a Hurricane happens by. As I write this, "Katrina" is lurking in the Gulf predicted to make landfall on the Louisana coast. Given the anxiety they cause, I prefer to wait on October to moderate and finally kill off summer. Of course, hurricaines are in the power of the fates or the gods, so my opinion won't matter much anyhow. I stay inside waiting until time has passed and history repeats itself.