It's Gone

It's my own fault, I guess I wasn't paying attention, but it's gone. Summer is gone and fall is here.

There were plenty of clues, but for some reason I they just didn't sink in. I saw plenty of guys and gals wearing the bright orange hats and vests, carrying guns and walking through the state-owned land. That doesn't happen unless summer is gone. I saw school busses on the roads. It didn't register that somehow summer was gone.

Well, I'm paying attention now. Yesterday, I suggested Elaine and I spend the day in town shopping and going to lunch at a restaurant that employs Girl Twin. It was a beautiful, sun shiny shorts and t-shirt day in the upper seventies. Elaine had evidently looked at a calendar and wore a turtle-neck sweater for one of two reasons. She might have thought the restaurant was going to be cold or she wanted to send the day telling me how hot she was.

As the day moved on dark clouds moved in above the mountains. No big deal, sometimes it rains in the afternoon. On the drive home, we encountered a few drops of rain on the windshield. Rain on the windshield is something Elaine can't deal with.

Elaine: Would you please turn on the windshield wipers, I can't see.

Me: These six raindrops aren't bothering me, just let me drive.

That was the exact moment, I realized summer was gone. Miniature quarter-sized snowballs started hitting the windshield. They were most likely hail, but they were soft, snow cone soft. I turned the windshield wipers to full speed. I had too. In a matter of minutes, the ground was white. According to the thermometer in our car the outside temperature had dropped from the mid-seventies to forty-one degrees.

Summer was gone. I started to notice things. The green leaves on the aspen and cottonwood trees on our property were now yellow. I don't know when that happened. I'm not ready for this, I need to cut firewood. I need to finish prepping the chicken coop and greenhouse. I might need to buy pants.

I swear I thought it was still summer. Someone should have told me.

God Bless, Love ya, wear warm clothes

Our crazy lives!

Monner