What Happened to September? This was written for my monthly contribution to the Quilcene Community Center's newsletter. I can't seem to get the poem at the start to behave and line up.

Of all the stories you can tell us,                                                                                                                               

Of good and bad things that befell us;                                                                                                                   

One thing that binds us all together;                                                                                                                          

Is that we share the self-same weather.

Time, like a wave, rolls through each season;                                                                                                    

Faster in fall, for some unknown reason;                                                                      

So, tell me now, I don’t remember;                                                                                                                                     Just what happened to September?

Yeah, I’m late again in getting my little commentary submitted. You’ll have to forgive me, I’ve been busy.

Well, you don’t have to forgive me; but I would appreciate it. This is crazy season for people whose work requires some decent weather; crazy because we all know, as we go from exhaustingly long hours of daylight, through the equinox (like, a week ago- or so), the pace of the race toward the winter solstice just seems to increase.

We couldn’t wake up early enough to beat the sun a month (or so) ago, and now, if you wake up at 6:30, say, it’s still dark. And next week…    

I’m not complaining. Well, yes, I am; a little. The weather has actually been really good for a long time; not much rain, not too many hot days; I almost feel brave enough to write what I’ve been saying in private for a while; that our Quilcene Summer weather the past few years has been remarkably like that of… gulp… Southern California (close to the coast- it’s different farther inland) back when I was a kid.

Hopefully I don’t have to beg your forbearance again. It was a long long time ago.

The thing is, we’re all crazed because we know our weather’s about to get, um, normal; rainy, south winds, low clouds, and then, those clear bone-cold northerlies. Snow? Errrr… sure, great; on the Olympics.  

But, while the leaves are changing colors, but still hanging on the trees, while we’re rushing around to finish projects, trying to make sure we’re ready for whatever the next season brings; maybe taking a moment here and there to appreciate just how beautiful a location we find ourselves living in; it has to be at least a bit reassuring to know that, once we hit that next seasonal landmark, December 21^st, we’re all on the same wave, rolling on toward Spring.  

Still, September has been a blur. And, hey, I have to get to work.