The Long Hot Summer

Hell's Fury, California

 It's no longer summer. In fact, we are just a day short of October. And today it is a whopping 106 degrees. I have had it. I am done. In fact, I've been done with summer for months. Tomorrow is the first day of October, and we have finished September in no small degree of bleakness. Covid continues to have us more or less incarcerated. There are fires all over California, and where I live we are not out of the woods yet. Everyone seems to have succumbed to this Covid, pre-election malaise. We are all more than ready for the light at the end of the tunnel in both issues and more. Where's the light? Even a pinprick would be welcome.

October has always been a favorite month for me. By October, in school, you were more or less in the rhythm of the semester or school year. And even though I don't live where there is an obvious changing of the season, you still sortakinda get October. The days are shortening, the light is different. Summer is gone. So, today, I bought the first of my pumpkins. In this case, just some tiny ones to put about the house. For the larger and the porch pumpkins, I will wait until the furnace blast ends.

In addition to the pumpkins, the Dodgers begin their playoff season tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers. And the Lakers are in post-season contention as well. I would speak more to their competition, except that I have absolutely no idea, as it's basketball. I mean, I like basketball. I played basketball. It's not like that crummy sport played with the ball that's pointed on both ends. But, then again, it's not baseball.

Tomorrow will also be the day that I get out my pumpkin mug and drink my tea from it in the morning. All the rest of the October and pumpkin paraphernalia, including Day of the Dead stuff, will come out as well. I don't really decorate, so much as place a few themed pieces, here and there. Enough to warm my heart. usually. We'll see if it works this year.

Lastly, October will be a full month of pre-election madness. And madness it was last night when Trump ruined a perfectly good debate by being... Trump. That's all it takes. Of course there were the predictable socialism and antifa water balloons tossed. Predictable, and silly, just as he has always been and always will be. It only went from silly to pathetic when those MAGA people actually took him seriously. Clearly not stable geniuses, that group.

In the past, I had kept my own politics out of my blog, at least until recently. But with all the bullshit slung around, it's quite challenging to keep still. So, let me reiterate, in case you've missed it: Neither Biden nor Harris are social democrats. If the DNC wanted a social democratic platform going forward, they would not have nominated a moderate. Duh. Private health insurance is not going away. Antifa is a movement, not an organization and the loose tribe who identifies themselves by that designation has not perpetrated any of the domestic terrorism in our country which has been proven to be done by right wing extremists. When did we transgress from being entitled to your own opinion to being entitled to your own facts? To all of this I want to plead: Utilize a reliable fact-checking site. PLEASE! In Girl Scouts we played a game called: Telephone. It is a game where you formed a line, and one person on the end whispered to the person next to her and on down the line. By the time the last person spoke the phrase outloud, we laughed at the distortion that had occured as the words had moved down the line. It's not funny now that distortion of information is coming fast and furious on cable news, social media and other online sites. Fact. Checking. Site. For the love of heaven.

But I digress. Pumpkins... Except, one last thought: Shouldn't we all be against fascism? Isn't that what our fathers/grandfathers/uncles fought World War Two over? Ok, never mind... It's too hot.

Pumpkins! And so, here comes October. Later this month we welcome The World Series and Halloween. Then the election, and we move on toward the end of the year holidays. I had such high hopes for 2020. I loved the symmetry  of the number. Recently, someone remarked to me that maybe we should just do 2020 all over again. Like a do-over, but without Covid. A thought, but I think maybe it's just plain better to think ahead to fresh seasons, fresh starts and a 2021 with good health, a better-run government, and lots of time for us all to catch up with each other, and on life as we knew it. It is coming, that tiny but growing point of light. It's out there. We just can't see it yet.

Pumpkins. Happy October. Enough said. Thank you for reading my blog.