By Michele Miller, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
You know it's going to be a good day when you fling open the sash and there's a cool blast of air shivering right through you, bringing the happy notion that things are going to be a little different from here on out.
Or at least for a while.
Winds of change. They blow in every year right around this time, marking the start of a pleasant respite from the living hell the Florida summer wrought.
Yes, these past few months felt like Hades for this thick-blooded northern transplant and some of the rest who stayed put when the snowbirds flew the coop, leaving us to while away those parched days inside.
Now it's time to once again open the windows, dig out the long sleeves and turn our attention to outdoor things like planting the fall garden. Sprouting beans and broccoli, carrots, spinach and swiss chard, too, are reason enough to feel a hopeful twinge prodded by the last few weeks of weather's perfect days.
"I wish it could be like this every day."
That's an oft heard thought lately.
But that's not likely to happen, what with global warming and all. And even if it did, being human, we'd be taking all those perfect days for granted before too long.
Lucky for us, the thought of playing hookey hasn't lost its appeal. There's definitely some reveling to be done along with offering Mother Nature something gracious for the distraction she's lent us with those with big, blue skies cast over morning's dew-laden landscape. "Come on outside," she beckons, and that helps take your mind off personal plights and the din of discourse in today's political climate.
Yes, the downside of autumn's circular arrival is that it brings the midterm election season right with it. Now we're caught up in the frenzy to the finish with November's fast approach. Lots of barking blowhards on the tube and in the daily news. Millions upon millions of their election signs are planted amid the "Bank Foreclosure" and "Property For Sale" signs that dot the great American landscape.
The "time for change" message will undoubtedly morph back into the "same old, same old" well after all the votes have been counted and fall gives way to winter, then spring and summer, then fall again.
Resignation is the cynic's tired lament, interrupted for a time with a blast of cool air and the dawning of another day in paradise.
Michele Miller can be reached at (727) 869-6251 or at miller@sptimes.com
