Random 5 for September 23 – Seasons, old times, sadness, people, purchases

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The siblings and spouses from several years ago at Stone Harbor, New Jersey

Easing into fall – It’s almost as if someone flipped a switch. Summer is gone. It is fall. One day it was in the 90s and the next we were struggling to hit 70 degrees. It’s darker earlier. We are eating dinner inside and watching Jeopardy. This past week I cleaned out the garden. The tomatoes were just about done. There were green ones on the vine but they don’t ripen as sweet. I realized a long time ago that waiting too long to clean up means that I freeze my butt off. It does not result in a continuous stream of wonderful tomatoes.

Stone Harbor, New Jersey 2013

Memories – Fall was always a travel time for us. Beach trips, New England leaf peeping. We haven’t been to the beach in a few years. This year was a very unpredictable year weather-wise. Many people ended up working puzzles indoors on their vacation. I wasn’t motivated to plan. I miss getting together with our siblings to overeat, sing and talk. Things change and we need to appreciate where we are right now. Next year may come with a different set of circumstances or challenges.

Melancholy – Fall is always the time that I get sad. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s a lovely season. Maybe I miss going back to school or the summer activities. I know I miss the long daylight. Some of my friends hibernate during the winter limiting their social functions. Perhaps it’s a fear of a long hard winter. I will medicate myself with an extra mocha latte and a “me day” and hope for the best.

Out of the woodwork! – Fall also means an uptick in people going to places I need to go. Starbucks is much more crowded. (Seriously, do people only drink coffee in the cooler months?) Even grocery stores are jammed. I haven’t yet adjusted to my “winter people attitude.” Yes, it’s slightly more tolerant but just slightly. (What were you expecting? A transformation?) I will roll over your feet with my shopping cart if you are dawdling.

Coming soon – The carpet we ordered several weeks ago is coming this week. As is always the case, I am wondering if I made the right decision. Will I like the color? Will a room of it look as good as the itty bitty sample? Purchasing anxiety. I always get it with things that can’t be returned.

So how was your week?

 

 

 

65 thoughts on “Random 5 for September 23 – Seasons, old times, sadness, people, purchases”

  2. I’m a fall person – the first change slant of the sun, the fresher crisp b breeze from the north, and the temperature becoming tolerable. Exhilarating to me. I hate July and August – too much sun, too long days, too hot and humid…it’s the seemingly endless bright gun glare I cannot tolerate. Makes me so depressed (being stuck inside might have something to do with that. ) I’ll take fall – it always seems like the start of a new year (probably comes from so many educators in the family – Sept is the start of a new year for school oriented) Oddly my brother is one who has winter seasonal disorder disease – he used to arrange travel to clients in sunny places for Jan and Feb…good thing…my sister-in-law said he’d be too difficult to be around otherwise. We are complete opposites.
    In anywise, coffee is great on crisp days (yesterday was sunny and below 90F, but today although mild this morning is humid and hot…and rain on the way…)

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    • A lowering of temps is wonderful except we dropped from the 90s to the mid-60s. My poor body is still getting used to it. There are some wonderful things about fall. It think it’s the dread of winter that packs a wallop on me. I’m with your bro. If I could spend Jan-Feb in a warmer clime, I’d be happy. However, with 4 cats, that isn’t going to happen. Maybe after I win the lottery. I wonder how they will feel about travel on a private plane.

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      • We thought about suggesting RC think about adapting to an Airstream…but she and Molly would fight over shotgun position.
        Fall is the best time for travel – less traffic, and people. But these days we have to wait out hurricane season just in case (and I keep saying we’d have the Airstream in case we had to evacuate we’d have a place to stay and pets comfortable …yep, waiting for those lottery numbers….

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  5. That’s a great family photo.

    Summer’s over. I guess it’s time to bring in the hose. If I can’t unscrew it, I’ll have to get the neighbor to help.

    I love fall–the leaves putting on a show before they fall, the slant of light in the late afternoon, the memory of school days, a new skirt and sweater, new notebooks and pens. But then November comes around–not my favorite month. Until then … enjoy.

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  6. It’s interesting that you note a distinct melancholy that comes with the advent of Autumn. Maybe you experience some sensitivity to the shorter days and less sunlight. The year goes so quickly, though, and sometimes I feel the stress of moving towards the holidays! I hope you’re enjoying all the pumpkin drinks and special cookies at Starbucks. That makes fall worth it. 🙂

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    • I love pumpkin but not so much the drinks! Give me pie, cake or cookies and I’m good! It may be the change of light with the shorter days that brings it on or pulling out plants and flowers in the clean up. For me it doesn’t hold that feeling of hope that spring brings.

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  7. I hate abrupt changes in anything – I don’t know if it is because I am getting older, or what.
    The cold weather was a slap in the face after a Summer of disappointments as to weather. You and I have discussed the events getting cancelled, one after the other. I refuse to pay for anything else in advance this year – Mother Nature can’t be trusted. New England leaf peeping is on my bucket list – someday I’ll take it in. My mom and I went up to Northern Michigan about 20 years ago. We asked around to find the peak time for the colors and planned that vacation week many months before we went … there was some oddball weather phenomenon that year and the trees were bright green when we arrived up North.

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    • For many years we would drive up to New England for leaf peeping. My husband’s sister lives up there and it was a great opportunity to see her. However, after several years of rainy weather, we stopped going. Since I had to plan ahead because of work, sometimes we hit the peak and sometimes (due to a weather fluke) we didn’t. I enjoyed the small towns with quaint restaurants and shops. Maybe some day we will go ahead but it’s not on my bucket list.

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  8. I think I can take summer moving into fall quickly though I’d prefer otherwise. My fear is that we go from summer into winter, which has happened at times.
    We love Stone Harbor. We didn’t get there this year but it is a special place. I’m always surprised how many people don’t know about it, and surprisingly, the locals prefer it that way..:)

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    • When I was young (in my 20s) my friends and I would go to Wildwood NJ for the beach. It had a more active social scene at night. Stone Harbor is much more sedate and family oriented. If we want crazy boardwalk (New Jersey style) we can drive down to Wildwood but staying in Stone Harbor, especially after the season, is peaceful and heavenly. I am hoping for a long warm fall. So far they are predicting rain until Friday (yet again).

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  10. We are having our lovely fall weather here… warm days, cooler nights… and fewer tourists YAY! I’m actually looking forward to changing out my wardrobe; I’m getting tired of short sleeves and wondering whether I should still be wearing shorts at my age. Skinny jeans and leggings are ageless as far as I’m concerned.

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  11. I can appreciate the angst you feel as the season changes, except I don’t usually feel it until January. That’s when the full impact of winter hits me and I just. want. out. From now until then, I tend to run at full speed.

    I love the photo of you with your siblings and spouses. These times are extraordinarily special and we usually don’t recognize it until we haven’t done it in a while.

    Happy Autumn! I hope it’s kind to you 🙂

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  12. It’s so hard to get a sense of how a big swath of color will look from samples. Whether it’s carpet or paint. I used to work with interior designers. One of them regularly made people paint up most of a wall and live with it for a week before they ordered the the rest of paint. Unfortunately it’s not possible to do that with carpet. But I always think carpet is more forgiving. It’s natural state is to be a background so after the first day, you no longer see it.

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  14. I had forgotten how your random five are actually not so random. You always string them together so nicely. But please, come clean: that picture is nothing but an advertisement for Planter’s peanuts. You can’t fool me! I noticed the earlier dusk last week when I turned on the living room lamp after dinner to watch the news — that was my first clue fall really was coming. – Marty

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  16. I used to make a delicious green tomato relish at the end of tomato season. It was a great way to use all those little green tomatoes.

    The big green tomatoes became Fried Green Tomatoes.

    Fall used to make me SAD too, Kate. Knowing that I would be filing away my flip flops and shorts brought me to tears. Living in Florida, Fall does NOT make me sad.

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    • I don’t grow big tomatoes so there are no fried green ones (which I don’t know if I like). I tried one year to wrap in newspaper to ripen but that didn’t work so well. It’s the taste. The taste is best when they are ripened by the sun in warm weather. Fall/winter is the best time for Florida so I’m sure you are doing the snoopy dance! 🙂

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    • We usually get your weather a few days later but it seems that the patterns are coming from the west and more northern. I’m not complaining except for the almost constant rain. It rained all week. Yesterday was gorgeous and today is rainy again.

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  18. Well, I LOVE summer. I don’t think anyone has heard me say it’s too hot! Too humid, yes, but too hot…I don’t think those words are part of my vocabulary. However, there is this secret part of me that really welcomes fall. I do love the crisp air. I love when the fall breezes blow and you just feel renewed. Perhaps refreshed. I look forward to all those holidays between October and December. And then the door slams, it’s winter and I am ready once again for summer.

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    • I feel much as you do. I enjoy fresh apples and some of the traditional fall foods. It’s that slamming door that I fear. Everyone hibernates until the weather clears again. Maybe it will be better next year.

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  19. There seem to be way too many peeps everywhere, in traffic, at stores, at all times of the day. Ugh. Despite what the calendar says, autumn has quite arrived in the Mile High yet…we still hovering close to 90. But ‘it’s a dry heat.’ Maybe later this week some more autumnal temps will arrive. Just hope they bring some moisture with them.

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  20. Looks like we’ll be pulling our beans and tomatoes in the next few days. Loads of beans on the wigwam, but the leaves and vines are dying so they may not ripen. The tomatoes are still going nuts, but I’m getting fed up with them now so we’ll pull those and freeze any red ones down for bolognese mixes. The little cherry ones are lovely, but even I can’t eat a hundred.
    Been a good week though. Hope you like the carpet after the long wait.

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    • Yes! In the spring there is the promise of something. Maybe anticipation of a social season full of fun events (especially if you live in a cold winter area). Come fall, it’s as if the grim reaper is around the corner!

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  22. I think I must have been a resident of a nudist colony in a past life because when fall comes, my gripe is that I can’t run around barefooted anymore in shorts and a tee. I have to put on pants and a sweater and socks and . . . I start feeling all wrapped up like a mummy!

    Wow, Stone Harbor is beautiful! (And so is your family!)

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    • I don’t go barefoot even at the beach! I also don’t mind long pants and a sweatshirt but I don’t like the down jackets, boots and other heavy clothes. Or having to buy them all! Stone Harbor is a beautiful shore point. It was an old town that was slowly redone. People (rich people, not us) bought the older homes, ripped them down and built beautiful shore homes.

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  23. I love fall. My sister always hated it, though. Said she felt like everything was dying. Usually fall in SoCal is the hottest month, but this year the temperatures have been dropping into the low sixties at night. Makes my little East Coast heart happy, even if I can’t see the leaves change.

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  24. I wish we could transpose the length of the days. Have the LONG days in the fall when we can get out, and the SHORT days on hot summer days when it is too miserable to. 🙂 I hear what you are saying about purchase anxiety. Always a problem! Be well, Kate. Hi to the Kits. 🙂

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  25. Love the picture of you jumping out of that snapshot.

    I’m falling into fall rather reluctantly as well. Ran this morning still in shorts but wrapped in a hoodie knowing sweats are in the wings. I totally get the melancholia since I have it too, like a yearly flu that infiltrates our senses.

    I always think of your pond that will now be deserted like a summer resort, closed up for the season. The good news, it will reopen again sooner than we can say, wow…it’s summer already? Where did the winter go?

    Here’s to a magic carpet ride.

    🙂

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