The smell of burning leaves. The deer wandering around in huge packs. And now, Halloween is upon us. Yes, it’s tough to believe that we are now in autumn time. With that, comes the end of Daylight Saving Time which means less of an afternoon and more of an evening. It’s a welcome respite for some and, well – a bummer for others. I’m willing to bet that those seasonal affective disorder (SAD) lamps will be selling in droves along with the Halloween candy before the big “Trick or Treat” day. Certainly this is not the time one would get a bargain on those items. “Darn, I should have gotten all of that back in the spring!” an absent-minded bargain hunter would say. Seriously, those light boxes help those with autumn and especially, winter blues. The candy-well, the candy is not so great to help out with the seasonal blues.
With the end of baseball (too early for those of us in Metro Atlanta) and now, college and pro-football ushering in along with the first chills, autumn reminds us to gear up for the winter. We hear about preparation all time including covering those pipes and getting the heating systems checked. The colder temps are a challenge for us and our living quarters in the Southeastern U.S. Overall, neither our living quarters or ourselves are insulated for the cold, physically and psychologically! Yes, houses have feelings too along with the abuse that we put our cars through in the colder months. Seriously, it’s a good time to get those fluids checked in the cars.
Since it’s been wetter this year, here’s hoping that we will not receive a bad mixture of moisture and cold. If that occurs, we are in for a tough winter filled with ice storms. Ice storms in this section of the country spells a bit of a challenge for us on physical, logistical and economic levels. It has been close to the three-year mark when we were snowed in for five days due to the fact that temps would not go back over freezing. Certainly this area has seen much worse including the 1982 storm where folks abandoned their vehicles, the March 1993 Storm of the Century and the January 2000 ice storm.
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Nevertheless, we do bounce back in our own special way. Oh, and by the way, it might be a good time to think about stocking up on canned goods, manual can openers and propane if one needs to cook during a long power outage. Furthermore, batteries, flashlights, jackets, extra blankets are just a few essential items for indoors. For the outdoors, pavement salt, de-icers, scrapers, gloves and shovels are also a good idea. Come to think of it, if someone made a kit including everything from SAD lamps to shovels, that person could be making a killing at this time of the year.
Well, enough of thinking forward and “survival mode.” Let’s enjoy that Halloween candy, leaf raking and cool temps.
