Fall Comes to Raleigh
In Raleigh, daytime temperatures are still in the 90s. Catherine is still lifeguarding. Max is still scratching from his allergies. Our air conditioner is still running regularly (though that may be more a function of a very perimenopausal family member- sort of an internal weather change). People are still wearing shorts. (The kids are also still in Rainbow Flip-Flops, but that does not count as that is required year round footwear.) Yet it is clearly early fall here.
Some of the signs are calendar driven. The most obvious is the beginning of the school year, with morning dashes for the car, evenings spent with good homework intentions, and meet-the-teacher nights all around. Mary is driving herself and Julia to school most days, so has received my Volkswagon Van Wisdom from my college days (you can hurry to get into or out of a VW Bus, but you cannot hurry in it- equally true for the Saturn (I)on that she drives.) Catherine has moved back to Chapel Hill and resumed classes there, after a fretful last bit at home wondering if her course schedule would come together like she wanted. The resumption of classes means the return of NCSU’s student-athletes, and with it the return of my Tuesday clinic and the head-shaking difficulties that somehow develop there.
Sports play a clear role. The official beginning of the end of summer is the completion of the summer swim team season, heralded by the Gator Banquet. Despite another solid month of heat, our family rarely ventures down to the pool after this. Volleyball gears up, with camps, tryouts, practices, and now two-a-week matches scattered about the Triangle. And did I mention grumbling about coaches? Attending NCSU soccer is wonderful at times with the not-too-hot, not-too-cold, not-too-humid conditions that currently prevail. The sound of Millbrook High School football games creeps in on Friday Nights. Joggers seem more common on the streets of the neighborhood.
Some of the changes are more difficult to specifically characterize. There is a different feel to the air, not entirely related to an overall fall in humidity. A few weeks ago on a usual August day of heat and humidity, a wind blew up that was gusty and intense, generating swirling little tornadoes of dry leaves rising and falling above the pavement. It was an undeniable Fall wind. The prevailing sound on our porch has evolved from birdsong to competing Cicadas, perhaps a complaint about having to repeatedly split out of their skin and start over. Nuthatches are more obvious, and Cardinals still call imperially, but I have not heard a Thrush or a Towhee is quite some time. (No Juncos yet- winter is still on hold). I am a bit surprised that the Hummingbirds are still around, and find myself thinking this sighting may be the last until next year.
Surfers are excited about the return of Hurricane Season. (Nothing like a storm, preferably offshore and destined for somewhere else, to generate rideable excitement.) The Sun is lower in the sky, obvious as the rays of early morning and late afternoon shine directly into your eyes as you drive. It is not yet cold enough to force the top closed on the convertable, so each day remembering to put a baseball cap in the car is added to the mental to do list, then forgotten before arriving in the driveway.
Sounds seem to carry further, even though the trees still wear their uniforms of leaves. Distant crows caw importantly. The canine chorus from the nearby Dog Park perks the ears of our 2 member Home Yard Security team. Traffic on neighborhood streets announces itself with a gathering rush of air. Not-so-near neighbors with blowers wage unwinnable contests with falling leaves attempting to sully the uniform green of their lawns. I watch and listen for the undulating V’s of Canada Geese, calling to one another with shared stories of misbehaving goslings and summer feasts.
The color of the sky changes, becoming a clear, often cloud-free blue that is somehow more crystalline; polished and shining with an intensity that is lacking in the earlier days of summer. Tens of thousands of feet away, aircraft appear with an immediacy that invites the attempt to identify the airline and perhaps wave to the grandmother looking out of the second window after the wing.
Chrysanthemums magically appear before every grocery store, waiting for transport home. Necessary items to celebrate Halloween (nearly 2 months away) and especially Christmas (4 months) appear in department stores. The aromas of Cider and Hot Chocolate cannot be far away.
It is a charmed time, but a brief one. At least in Raleigh, the end of Fall occurs abruptly. Year after year, the first really cold day of the year blows in during the week of the North Carolina State Fair, often accompanied by a wet foretaste of dreary winter rains. This emphatic punctuation mark occurs this year from Oct 15-25 . You can write that on your calendars- in ink!