Musings on the Month of September

It's September!

I have vague memories of September meaning things like wearing jackets at night, leaves changing colors, and the blissful disappearance of both humidity and mosquitoes.  Not from my childhood.   September was usually warm Santa Ana weather in San Diego.  But from my sojourns in Utah and New York, and then the stretch up in Sanders (though Sanders had no leaves changing colors, primarily because trees were scarce).  As a kid I used to watch movies where they showed "real fall" and I was always vaguely envious.  Watching kids go back to school wearing sweaters and jeans-- shoot, even in San Diego my back to school clothes were shorts and light t-shirts.  (Here in the desert, only people with a wish for heatstroke would put on a pair of jeans and a sweater in September.)  Anyway, when I finally got to live somewhere with real seasons-- especially when I got to New York-- I reveled in autumn-ness.  It was awesome!!

It's like a misty remnant of a lovely dream now.  We don't get fall in the desert.  Not anything that remotely seems like fall to me.  We will stay warm-- and the mosquitoes will continue to eat us alive-- for the next two months.  The only sign that summer is ending will be the shorter days and the end of the monsoon storms every afternoon.  So I'm jealous of all you people who can wear a jacket and drink something warm and sit in front of a fire.  I'm jealous of the leaves you have to rake.  (Our tree in the backyard is deciduous but it loses its leaves in about February.  And they don't turn blazing colors.  They just turn brown and crumble.  It's so odd.)

Well, at some point this month the pool will start feeling too cold to swim in.  At least for me, who prefers at least 85 degree water.  The good thing will be that I won't have to deal with with washing and combing kids' hair after swimming.  Not on my list of fun things.  The girls' hair feels so dry and brittle too.  It'll be good to get a break from the chlorine.  On the other hand, no more swimming means probably going back to the braids for B's hair.  Four hours of braiding every other week.  Makes my arms hurt just thinking about it!

September also means that we have a HUGE milestone birthday coming up.  M will turn 16 this month.  How is that possible??  The funny thing is, life probably won't change much.  She won't be getting her driver's license yet (not quite enough driving practice under the belt yet) and she has zero interest in boys, so even though our family rules will allow her to date, she won't take us up on it.  M is certainly taking it easy on her parents!  (Now if we could just help her find a solution to the no-sleep problem.)

This month also marks 11 years in our home.  That's another difficult things to wrap our heads around.  This is the longest either of us have ever lived in one place.  We have definitely put down some strong roots here!

Here we go, plunging into the last quarter of 2017.  Let's enjoy it all we can-- time just seems to be passing faster and faster!