I woke up and it was cold in the house.
I plucked my housecoat from behind the bedroom door and put a pot of coffee on to brew. My bare feet were cold, so I went and put on some socks.
The coffee took a bit of the chill off and I had a longer, hotter shower than usual and dressed before breakfast.
It was still cold.
I could easily have remedied the situation by going to the thermostat and clicking the switch to on and the furnace would have kicked in and warmed up the house.
But it wasn’t Oct. 1 yet. My kids will attest that each fall they regularly heard me echoing my father’s words – “Put on a sweater, put on some heavier socks. It’s too early to put the furnace on.”
I’m pretty sure it was a financial thing with my dad and a long sleeve shirt and sweater were cheaper than sending the electric company more money.
In the earlier days, living in our old drafty farm houses, you could just throw another piece of firewood into the kitchen stove and it was comfortable if you stayed close, but firewood was much cheaper than oil or electricity.
For me it’s a bit different. As soon as I turn that switch to on, summer is over.
That’s a signal that I’ve given in to fall and conceded that there will be no more days of sunshine to warm my house or my body.
I’m not ready to change seasons yet.
At the end of a busy Cruise-In weekend we sat at the swap meet in the sunshine.
My buddy, Chuck, was the DJ with a great selection of ’50 and ’60s songs and, in the words of Wolfman Jack, he encouraged the large crowd to “sit back and relax while I spin some tracks from my stacks of wax!”
Many of the vendors or customers stopped by to tell him how great the music was and how much it added to the beautiful day.
It truly was a beautiful day — blue cloudless sky, warm sunshine and just enough breeze to whisk the brown and yellow leaves across the lot, mixed with voices of Johnny Rivers, Smokey Robinson and Brenda Lee.
Everyone there had the same feeling, they didn’t want summer to end either. It was almost as if the crowd was banding together to grab the edge of that late summer Sunday afternoon and stretch it out into next week and maybe the week after that.
No doubt it wasn’t just the car show crowd.
I’m sure gardeners were harvesting, hoping for just a few more pleasant days before the cold rain.
Probably, Campbell Valley Park and the Fort to Fort trail were busy with walkers and dogs and kayakers and paddlers were out on the channel and the lakes taking advantage of calm water and enjoying the breeze at their back and the sun on their neck.
There is almost a sense of desperation for those who promised themselves they would be out more this summer and have suddenly realized they didn’t do near as much as they wanted to, and now they are chasing the shadows as they get longer and disappear earlier.
Dig out some heavier PJs and spread another blanket on the bed.
The long range forecast looks promising.
Don’t give in, hang on to summer as long as you can.
At least that’s what McGregor says.