September

Today begins the first of my three favorite months of the year, in order of appearance, September, October, and November. College football is underway - all the blowouts over the weekend by the big name schools (including Louisville) means we can move into the real season later in the upcoming week. The baseball picture is coming into view - even Chicago is up a game and a half. Soon the leaves will begin turning colors - the ones that haven't already died from the summer drought - and people will want to drive "out into the country" to see the reds, yellows, auburns, and purplish tints before the leaves themselves begin their final travel season from the trees down to the ground, to become so much loam and earth to fill the bung hole of a beer barrel (according to Prince Hamlet in the cemetery scene with Horatio), or food for ants, worms, and other little creatures who find their food in the discards of other living things - such as trees.

Such is the time in which I find solace. The pace slows, the temperature drops (thankfully, as the Weather Service is reporting Louisville's hottest August ever to be one just concluded), and quietude and contentment begin to set in for a while.

Oh, I know it will be busy - we do have a governor to un-elect - and artificial Christmas Trees are being erected as I type these words, for early-bird shoppers at Target, K-Mart, and Sears.

Make haste slowly.