It's Comin'...

My friend Delma, at work, showed me the online trailer for the remake of THE FOG! It's looks GOOD!!! (Selma Blaire in the Adrienne Barbeau roll, Stevie Wayne, it looks like!)

It starts the day before I turn 35, even!!!

And that's cool enough!

But then I walk outside to have a smoke...

The two lightbulbs in the east entrance are winking on and off. The leaves of the surrounding trees are rustling as the winds whines softly across the brick walls and concrete on my side of the alley.

The moon is waxing three-quarters, but shining just as brightly as it can in the blue-black sky. White-grey clouds rush up to engulf it as, on the oposite side of the sky, other white-grey clouds rush in the opposite direction.

The wind is really kicking up, and I feel the temperature drop a degree, despite the stubornness of this year's Austin summer.

It's coming.

Fall is coming.

The Austin summer heat is fighting for supremecy, harder than it ever has in my 13 years here, but the Fall is coming!

Fall has always been my favorite season!

Actually, I can find something wonderful in every season.

But there's something MAGICAL about Fall. Something dark and magical!

I was born in the Fall, I am a child of the Fall.

Fall gives us a break from the heat. Fall gives us a renewed sense of purpose as we say good-bye to the vacation of Summer. Fall gives us beautifully colored leaves. Fall lets us wear our new jackets.

Fall also lets us frolic! But it brings the night sooner, so we sometimes frolic in twilight and darkness.

I usually am able to tell when Fall is coming by a particular chill inside and otherwise mild breeze. But this year the Summer heat refuses to relent. (Austin is infamous for it's Summers that begin in February and end in November.) Still, about 8 days ago I felt the Fall despite the heat. There was this OTHER quality to the air.

And I'm not nuts! Brian felt it, too! (He loves the Fall as much as I do, and for many of the same reasons. Which isn't surprising really. We're brothers. In many ways we shared a childhood.)

But tonight!

Tonight when I walked outside, the night was still, but Fall entered with quite a show! I watched the clouds and moon do their little dance while I listened to crickets and the clicking of one of the elecrtic bulbs winking out, and the clack of the leaves against each other and the faint "Woooo" of the wind!!!

The Fall was talking to me! It was telling me not to worry, it hasn't forgotten. It explained that Summer was putting up a real fight, but here it was. Fall didn't even have to assure me that it would win, I could feel it's determination, it's strength, it's playful spirit that will easily overwhelm Summer's oppressive weight.

It's coming.

And it's ready to play!