Transitions

Tomorrow is the autumn equinox. This last day of summer has been rainy and cold and we may even have snow tonight. I went out with a basket and picked every vegetable in the garden, even the almost ripe tomatoes, now resting on a windowsill in the kitchen.  

I came home from Lake Ottawa late yesterday after several rainy days. Gary is still there expecting a very cold night indeed though the temperatures will get higher over the weekend.  

I feel that I never really had the summer I wanted.  I usually spend hours in the June, July and August sun, soaking up the Vitamin D I'll need through the winter. This year those were months of heat and drought in Wisconsin.  We don't like to overuse our two air conditioners, so unless the temperatures were over 90 during the day, we left them off.  Instead, we closed off the house during the day and opened the windows at night. I usually went for walks at sunset or after dark when it was cooler.   

With the blinds drawn during the day, the house was dark. I found myself experiencing a seasonal affective disorder (SAD) similar to what I suffer during January and February. 

There still will be time to soak in the sun in October, but the tan I acquired in June is fading.  

This last day of summer seems to be a transitional day. This morning, a friend's mother died. Norma and I have been friends for over fifty years, so I will be there, helping her to say good-bye. There are the things that only her daughters can do.  As Emily Dickinson wrote 

The bustle in a house

The morning after deathIs solemnest of industriesEnacted upon earth, - 
The sweeping up the heart,And putting love awayWe shall not want to use againUntil eternity.

My job is to listen, to lend a hand.  

It is also a beginning, as Wade and I prepare to present our e-book to the world some time in the next day or two and a paperback the week after that.  How will that change our lives?  Perhaps not much at all, but you never know. 

Transitions. 

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Bettyann Moore's third Porpoise McAllister story is at Black Coffee Fiction http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  In this one he is boy discovering there is a difference between girls and boys.