It finally had to happen, but it seems that the warmest, sunniest summer that I have ever experienced is finally over. After gradually building up a steady, healthy glow (not just a semi-burnt “tan” from a 2 week summer holiday in Europe) my skin is already fading back into it’s more traditional pasty appearance. By the time winter gets here I’ll be blending in with the snow again! The summer sun seemed to run from around May (pretty much when I got burnt at the Indy 500) and was in all of it’s shining glory until around September and since then the weather has been, well, rather British. The pool at the apartment neighbourhood has now closed for the season and I’m going to miss coming home from work in the evenings, dumping my stuff at the apartment and then heading over to meet friends there for the evening (the temperature hovering around 30-34 C to late, late in the night).
We’ve had days of sun and warmth that fool you into thinking that maybe, just maybe, it’s not quite over yet but then the rest of the week has been a washout with non-stop rain. I even heard on the TV weather update that there is a possibility of some snow flakes falling in Indianapolis this week; that would be weird!
That said it sounds like the UK has been having an Indian summer; it wasn’t supposed to be this way … give me the sunshine back!
The leaves on most trees have now started turning from their deep, vibrant green into varying shades of browns, yellows, and oranges. The wind has also started to pick up recently, meaning that most of the ground is covered in a sheet of crunchy foliage.
The main problem I see with having all of these leaves on the floor, and especially in autumnal colours, is that it becomes virtually impossible to walk past a “leafed up” area without sh*tting your pants (figuratively) as a giant squirrel jumps out of a pile of them and seems to be heading for your nuts. Especially around here where they are tame and seem to have no fear of humans. I meant the squirrels there, not nuts. Like pretty much everything else in America, squirrels seem to be bigger than their equivalent in the UK; yesterday I saw one out of the corner of my eye and thought it was a stray dog.
Spiders and other creepy crawlies seem to be bigger here too. I’m hoping the colder weather will put an end to one huge spider that seems to enjoy spinning a web across the front door of my apartment, but I wouldn’t count on it. That thing is huge, and at least once a week you’ll see me either pulling cobwebs from my face or pulling some moves a contortionist would be proud of to work my way through the web. I’m hoping that’s the end of the bugs, as it can’t say much for my manliness when you you avoid certain parts of the apartment because you’ve recently trapped a centipede over there or something.
I remember when my sisters and I were younger and dad would always be called to get rid of the bugs for us, but I think these ones would make anyone think twice. If not then it’s something I need to work on. Worryingly I think I’m turning into my dad a few too many years ahead of schedule: I keep finding grey hairs more frequently after every haircut, I’ve been putting a jumper on if I’m cold instead of turning the heating up and, most impressively of all, I’ve started doing DIY around the apartment using a knife as a screwdriver. Actually I think that last point was always mum’s forte, which would normally result in dad having to fix the additional problem with a proper screwdriver.
Although I seemed to have mourned the passing of summer in this post, autumn and winter are actually some of my favourite times of the year. I love the cold, the wrapping up, and being inside and warm when you can hear the weather outside. I just hope the winter this year isn’t as bad as it was last year as I don’t want my flights home for Christmas to be disrupted!
Incidentally, some lucky person will be unwrapping some Boy Scout popcorn this December 25th. Why? The Boy Scouts got me again. Same as this time last year. Except this time they were smarter, coming in pairs (this little chap brought his little sister along) and choosing a day when it was raining and miserable outside just to create the ambience. I’m pretty sure he was even pretending to shake through coldness as he gave me his pen. “I’ll take a bag of the $10 stuff, please”. What else could I say?!
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