The Fall of Augustus Summerus

When I got off the plane Saturday night, I knew something was different. Not just different from the 90-degree heat, 90-percent humidity I was suffocating in back east, but different in the sense that summer was gone. It was chilly, breezy, and windy.

The next couple of days resembled the typical September Seattle weather I've come to look forward to by the end of summer, but not this year. I attended the "Tuesdays at Tolt" mountain bike ride last night, a ride that has almost reached the status of inevitability shared by taxes and death. The ride began at 6pm, kept a relatively modest pace for 10 miles or so and was a good time (lots of new faces and some I hadn't seen in a while). One thing I didn't much care for, however, was that I couldn't see. The sun didn't set until after 8pm, but by 7:30 visibility in the woods was diminished to a point where if I had 'em, I would have turned my lights on. I didn't. Nobody did. It's freaking August.

So instead we rode blindly. It wasn't long before it was too dark to see what color clothes and helmets those around you were wearing. Coming back towards the main exit, I went up and over the ladder-rock on the Schaefer trail. From the top of the rock, I couldn't see any of the pesky tree roots that mar the rollout. That's when I decided to kick out to the gravel road and take the safe way back. Safe that is, until the descent down It's a Bitch (IAB). Fortunately I know the trail well and was able to zip along pretty quickly, despite the 10 feet of visibility. Oh, and it was raining too.

This morning I woke to the sound of a heavy wind blowing through the alley outside, rustling the leaves of the trees, and sending something crashing into something else in someone's backyard. Hopefully not mine. It's 53 degrees out, rain is due, the wind is blowing.

Summer is dead, yet I hardly knew her.

Winter stayed far too late this year and while I hear summer was lovely in July and the early half of August, I wasn't here. My July was swallowed whole by the creation of this (giveaway tomorrow) and I've not been home for even a single disjointed week in August.

So I must instead embrace the fall, a season that keeps me behind the desk more than any other, but one that also brings with it some of my greatest joys: crisp autumn breezes, the Seahawks, and pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks. Not to mention we're a few days closer to the release of Sonic Unleashed, Fallout 3, and Gears of War 2, just a couple of the must-have games I've pre-ordered this season (not including the one that will become the bane of my existence for the next 3 weeks).

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