Monday Sept. 21st... What an Appreciation of Life First Thing This Morning...

After getting up at six, in the dim light of pre-dawn gray and leaving the dogs out to do their business, I peered out the window in the computer room until they were ready to return to my spot on the bed beside Sweet Vicki as she slumbers. As soon as I kicked the sliding glass door open, they shot past me like a bolt of greased lightning, heading for the stairs and I quietly slid the door closed and headed for the kitchen to get the coffee going. Once the coffee was perking, the pills were distributed onto the "pill plate", I shut the lights off and stepped out onto the rear deck to watch the day awake from its nightly slumber. In the still gray pre-dawn light, I could see that it was a brisk thirty-two degrees, but there was no frost to be seen anywhere. I walked over to the handrail and leaned both elbows on it and propped my chin in my hands as I watched the steam rise in the form of fog over the Pupskill Bay Lake Pond, as we affectionately and jestingly call it. Seeing that rise of steam tells me that the water is not yet ready to turn over the warmth the day time sun has to offer, even throughout the course of the long chilly nights. There was dew coating every blade of grass and tree leave in sight. It will only take a few more degrees some evening soon for the magical event to occur when all things turn that silky white, causing all the leaves on every plant and tree to race for the ground as soon as the next day's sun rays touch it. There will then be a classical display of beautiful colors splashed about as the final calling card of autumn. The smell in the air this morning will be multiplied ten fold, so that no living being could ever be mistaken that fall hasn't officially arrived, for you could take a blindfolded person out on a fall morning and they would unmistakably tell you it was fall. There is a kind of elixir in the air that stirs the blood in your veins and rejuvenates your desires to perform tasks left undone in the apathetic heat of summer. The fall air makes you want to move on and see as much as you can and exceptionally restless to sitting still or lying around like you find yourself doing in the summer.
It's as if water means fishing, flowers and grassy fields mean hiking, pumpkins mean Halloween and apples mean spiced apple cider at a fall festival, cider doughnuts... maple syrup candy, crafts and hot chocolate as you pull the collar of your jacket up around your neck. Who could hate fall? Who would not want to be alive this time of the year to partake of all the traditional events and see the smiles and happy faces? You can see far more smiling, happy people this time of the year than all others combined. Get out and enjoy yourself and everyone else!

As a footnote... I've noticed quite a few folks from Pa. and New Jersey are watching...one from State College and another from Altoona. Email us at juniata1951@aol.com and let us know who you are. I used to live in State College, Lewistown, and Huntingdon, and I know Altoona well. Also Vicki was from Central New Jersey and the Lancaster area of Pa. All you folks from these areas email her as well (use my email)