Saturday, August 31, 2019

Thinking of Autumn

It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of August. Where did the summer go? There’s a whole list of summer-related activities I wanted to do this year but alas. Unlike last summer when I had to practically raise a puppy, I really don’t have much of an excuse on why I couldn’t knock some things off that list. Maybe I took the phrase “lazy summer days” too much to heart?

Despite my lack of activities these past 3-4 months, I’m actually looking forward to autumn. And, yeah, I know that fall technically doesn’t occur for another three weeks, but in my mind, it starts once Labor Day weekend is over. Although, I’ve already seen Halloween decorations in certain retail stores and Starbucks is selling their Pumpkin Spice drinks, so I guess corporate America believes that summer ended last month?

Anyway. Spring is actually my favorite season, but there’s something about autumn that usually brings about all sorts of exciting changes. I’m not in school anymore – so I don’t have to stress out about the upcoming school year – but I’ll be meeting my new bible study group in three weeks. To be fair, most of the individuals from my last group will be sticking around, but now we’ll be receiving a round of new people too. And there’s been a slight change in leadership (because two of them got “promoted”).

College football has also started! I was heartened to see MSU win yesterday, but I don’t really want to discuss the quality of their gameplay. NFL is still in preseason, but my brother has always been passionate about football, so the TV constantly has some sort of football game on during the weekends.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to get tired of BBQs. Bring on the cider and donuts! Or apple crisp anything. I don’t like the taste of pumpkin, though, so you can keep all your pumpkin products to yourself.

I also think fall fashion is the best. I can start wearing boots instead of flip-flops. And even though I’m not much of a sweater person, fall clothing is all about being cozy minus the bulkiness of the winter cold.

Know what else occurs in fall? More books!

Spring is the season to promote debut authors, summer is for the beach read, and autumn is for the heavy-hitter/popular authors and books more on the literary side. (And winter is basically used to promote holiday shopping. It’s purely a business thing. The publishing houses hope that the novels they sell in autumn will carry them over financially until the spring.)

During the month of September and October, there are nine books being published that I plan on picking up. My birthday is in the middle of October, so these books always serve as easy gifts from my family. Because I’m told I’m difficult to shop for.

However, this isn’t good news for my pile of unread books sitting on my dresser. It’s currently at 17. I was able to catch up a little during the summer - since I wasn’t buy that many books - but still.

Last week, I finished reading SEAFIRE by Natalie C. Parker. I was pleasantly surprised by its non-stop action. Definitely had a summer vibe going for it. I mean, the best way I can describe it is that it’s about an all-girls crew of steampunk pirates. (The term “pirates” is usually reserved for thieves, which they weren’t, but they spent more time sailing the sea rather than setting foot on land.) Haven’t fully decided which book to read next, but I wasn’t planning on taking a week off. Not if I would like to read at least 22 books by the end of the year. (SEAFIRE was Book #17. And I tend not to read any novels in November.)

The one thing I’m not looking forward to in autumn is raking leaves. Our trees dump so many leaves, and they like to spread out the whole process for three entire months. But at least all the bright foliage throughout Michigan looks pretty in the meantime.

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