October 8, 2009
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1 October.
2 What an awesome month.
3 It's like summer sort of sneaks out the back door, baseball turns into the Yankees and the Dodgers and anyone else who slipped INTO the door, the baseball playoffs aren't on any normal teevee channel, and you get home too tired to figure it all out.
4 It's freezing in the morning and eerily dry in the afternoon, and everything has a certain autumnal haze to it.
5 Transitional month, to be sure, and aren't we all in transition...
6 And still, there's an awesome peace that goes along with the orange and red leaves that drift down, landing softly on cold lawns that don't know if they need to be mowed or not.
7 Yesterday I seemed caught in the non-reality of October. For one thing, the grading period ends on Friday, so suddenly my life is in a race to finish grading papers. Not a bad thing, and in fact, something I've actually been doing for three weeks now.
8 The first few weeks of school, I assign stuff, then spend the majority of my time making my lessons as interesting as I possibly can, which in many cases is not at all, depending on the material I have.
9 And then I spend a lot of my spare time writing songs, watching baseball, laughing with family and friends, and living a relatively normal life.
10 Then September ends, and I awaken.
11 Pumpkins suddenly displayed outside of Save Mart appear seemingly from the autumnal afternoon air; the same air that is hot, dry, and just as suddenly, chilling.
12 The garden that was so green and plentiful in the summer is now spotted, dry, yet still producing cherry tomatoes and whatever else still lies around reminding one of a time not so long ago when they all were seeds in a tray.
13 October. It's one of my favorite months, to be sure.
14 But it sure is sneaky, despite the early warning signs of Halloween costumes appearing in places like Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Target, et. al. They tried telling us in late July, but who was listening back then?
15 Ah, it's all good.
16 It's just so weird that it is suddenly October. No more Giants. No more A's, not that there ever were this season. We pretend to care about the baseball playoffs, but really, once our own race is over, it's all a bit of a bore, except for a few cool games.
17 Hockey hasn't really started yet, and football is only once a week, with a bye somewhere early. Cal isn't close to the team we though they were; the Raiders...yeesh.
18 We pretend to care. Then we get chilled once more, and sift through soup recipes.
19 October.
20 I'm tellin' ya.
21 Yesterday I found out that our theater is in use on October 30, so I have to scramble to tell the Heidi Chronz this year.
22 I'll get it done, somehow.
23 October. And then there's Poe...
24 Poe. This is the time of year I bring in that old gloomy soul and drag him around so that students can goof on his legacy. That boy was good, no doubt, with the amazingly lyrical poems Annabel Lee and The Raven.
25 He was also pretty full of himself, which, given the skills exhibited in those two pieces, might be well-deserved.
26 Today he'd die of emo-ism on Facebook.
27 Such is the times.
28 'Tober.
29 Still arguably my favorite month, once it gets rolling. It just always has this hazily weird beginning to it.
30 I guess it's the reality that the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer are officially gone, and large orange moons, clear starry nights, and occasional chills seem to be the order of the day.
31 Pull a blanket up over yourself, cozy up with some hot cider, and begin to enjoy the season. It's here, officially, and we all must bundle up and enjoy this annual ritual.
32 Have a pumpkin spice pie, cake, or coffee, maybe all three, and welcome October.
33 Have a delightful Thursday.
34 Boo.
35 Peace.
~H~
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