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When I lived in New Hampshire, a sure sign of the coming winter was when the Contoocook River behind my house felt suddenly too cold to water ski in. It was Labor Day weekend, and my friends agreed that things had suddenly changed. Next would come the autumn coloring of the leaves which, in New England, is a glory like no other in the world. In northern New Jersey, the signs of change were predictable and direct: the maple tree at the point where the road turned sharply up the hill began its show of color. Dunn's house was the marker of the change that was soon to come. And when the weather forecast was for snow in the "northern and western suburbs", the kids could figure on a delayed opening of school the next morning.
In Pennsylvania now for 12 years, I have learned to read the signs of the changing seasons in my new state. Spring was defined by the opening of myriad green leaves along the driveway and summer meant the beginning of LIGHTNING BUGS! As a child, catching them was the joy of after-dinner life. They were a lovely orangey-yellow, and tended to gather around the lilac bushes at the end of the yard. Huge ones could be seen up in the tallest tree in the woods behind our house. Their large lights would swoop down, seem to disappear, and then reappear a short distance ahead. Even if we could have caught them, they would have been scary because of their size. My lightning bug catching days are past, but I have to watch as they come around at night while I am walking the dogs. These lightning bugs are DIFFERENT. They are not the orangey-yellow I am accustomed to. These are GREEN! It's as if the "caution" light was turned to "GO" to find a mate and continue your species while there was still time. And go they do, all over the numerous trees in the yard, the apple trees in the orchard, and the garage wall when the door is left open. There is no stopping them as they swoop about, blinking to announce their presence to a potential mate. Occasionally they bump into Patches and Skittles while in search of the "perfect" place to do business. When this happens, the dogs just brush them away and continue their searching. Over the past few evenings, I have noticed a sharp decline in their numbers. At first I blamed it on the thunderstorms that have made even walking the dogs a challenge. Who would be out flying in that weather? Then last night we had a reprieve from the flash-crash-splash of the earlier nights and I watched for the little lights. I could see NONE. Were they gone for the season? Was summer gone with them? The neighbors' kids said that they started school next week, even before Labor Day. This was a shock. School always began right AFTER the holiday. Why was it different here? Did the school board share a secret with the lightning bugs that it was time to call an end to the warm weather activities and settle in for the coming winter? Is that why I hadn't seen any kids in their pools for a week? Temperatures were still in the 80's, so why were they deciding that the season was over? Last night may have been an indicator of what was to come. Patches and Skittles were out for their final night walk, and I didn't see a single lightning bug. Not one. It was warm out and very humid, but even the "feel" of summer didn't account for the absence of the "signs" of that season. It made me sad as I realized that I hadn't refinished furniture that was on my list or cleared out the new area for next year's garden or rearranged the pile of bricks left by the garage. It had been too hot to do this work, and now I could only look at more things that I had left undone. From a wheelchair, that is depressing. But yesterday I had a visit from an elderly (80's) friend who said that she had always believed that to scrub a floor, she had to do it on her hands and knees, but now she couldn't do that. So she had accepted the fact of her limitations. I hoped that she also accepted the fact of mine as she sat in the kitchen and glanced around the cluttered room and the floor covered with paw prints. Oh please, I hope she accepted them! Just Mom |
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| Cartoon Courtesy of Coffee Cup Software |