No!  I don't hate autumn (which begins this Saturday with the Autumnal Equinox).  It is, in fact, my favorite season.  But, I do love summer and seeing it pass is like saying goodbye to an old friend who is moving away, if only for a short time.

So begin the fall chores.  One of the days I dread is closing up the pool for the winter.  We just opened it, didn't we?  I swam twice all summer.  Fortunately, others used it more frequently.  If others hadn't been in it, I would have spent more time in there myself.  Why?  Because the pump runs all summer, I keep it chemically balanced all summer....that's hard and a bit costly.  So I would have MADE time to go in just so I wouldn't feel I was wasting money.  I'm weird that way.

So anyway, I went by to see my old pal Tom at Levesque Pools and got my 2 jars of Lively's Zucchini Relish, which is a tradition when I pick up my pool closing chemicals. See, Levesque's sells it and I know I won't get back there until spring.  My relish and 3 or 4 gallons of potent pool "crap-be-gone" chemicals in hand, I head home and begin what I should have started  last week.

Another thing, the thing that inspired me to close down the pool, was a call from Pete Geiger, editor of The Farmers' Almanac.  He was with us briefly on the show this morning calling for a cold, snowy winter.  Hooray.  Do I seem bemused?  I am.  Back in the days when I had snowmobiles, I couldn't wait for winter. The call of the great white north reverberated in my brain. Then I realized, after we'd gone several winters with little snow in central Maine, that a snowmobile was useless, save for a few weekends a year when I'd have to trailer it 100+ miles to ride. I got over that pretty quickly.

Next, the boat has to go into storage.  Wow, it seems like I just brought that home last week from storage. Why do we (read "I") buy expensive things to use for such a short time every year? Read on.

Contrast, Baby

If  I could use the boat or the pool year round, I reckon I'd not appreciate them nearly as much as I do. Marie-Anne and I have thought about moving to a more temperate climate.  Perhaps we will when we get old and grumpy. For now, though, the cold winter makes us appreciate spring, summer and fall all the more. Besides, since I've taken up plinking  as a hobby, I have something I can do year round.

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