All I have to say about Surlymon is....

.......Thank God, I don’t have children. I wish he would get it together. I hope you don't have to cave in but that need to keep him in college is going to weigh heavily. I could volunteer to come up and make his life really miserable.

We were supposed to take opposite sides of the issue of not liking and liking fall. However, Surlymon changed the course of BlueJinx’s post. I will still give my side of the discussion and as long as Surlymon doesn’t get too surly she will be able to give her side later.

Fall:
I really, really like fall. It’s cool and crisp in the mornings (anything under 80 is cool) till about 8. And then it heats up to an unreasonably warm 85 or 90 in the afternoon. Here in L.A. summer seems to last forever: April through September. Maybe even March, sometimes with October. I hate summers down here. It feels like 120 at 630 a.m. and that lasts till after midnight. I don’t care what the weatherman says, I believe that during the summer the daily low is only about 90. It is too hot for too long down here.

And that’s why I like fall. Glorious mornings I can sit on the porch sipping hot tea, wearing my sweatpants, without sweat dripping from my brow. Cool evenings for the same thing. My dog can stay outside for hours with keeling over from heat exhaustion. (She has a heavy, black coat; even shaved she has a tendency to overheat in the summer if outside for more than 20 minutes.) And if I feel a need to go swimming, the afternoons are always hot enough for a dip in the ocean. Many pre-schoolers are still working on their tans in their wading pools at this time of year.

These cool mornings give me time to catch up on all the yard work I will not do during heatstroke season. It is cool enough that long walks are enjoyable, they are not a moving sauna. You can have lunch picnics that don't cook themselves as soon as you take the food outside. Fall gives me a chance to put out flowering plants that have a chance at surviving; during heatstroke season even the outdoor plants need the AC on. I can open the house up and feel cool, refreshing breezes, listen to the birds sing, hear the dump trucks rattling by.

Fall, fall, glorious fall. Don’t ask me about leaves turning colors – that only lasts a day down here in L.A. I’m hoping for a cold winter. It would be nice to wear a few of my sweaters before the moths eat them up.