Indian Summer

 Ah....fall. It's finally fall in Texas. It's the time of year when the leaves stop falling because they have dried up from the heat to where they fall because nature's internal clock tells them it's time. It's when it is refreshing to go outside and enjoy the cool breeze and realize that life is good and we have much to be thankful for. 

Fall in Texas lasts from about the first Tuesday in October until the first Friday in October. Oh sure, we have had extremely long fall seasons, lasting for nearly a full week, but those times are rare. After our fall is over we experience what has been referred to as "Indian Summer".

The phrase "Indian Summer" is defined as 'any spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or November'. Down here in Texas we just call it, "more hell". I know that isn't as poetic as Indian Summer but it describes things perfectly. 

It's Saturday and Indian Summer has returned. The cool days of fall are just a pleasant memory. Today's high is in the upper 90's. Tomorrow is expected to reach 100...again. I had to get out a light jacket the other day and I almost had to wear it for a few minutes. Now it's back in the "coat closet". Items in the coat closet have been known to not only go out of style but actually dry rot from lack of use. I hate Indian Summer.

When we were kids the word "summer" equated to freedom, baseball, fishing, and having more fun than the law should allow. We hated it when September got here because our parents told us it was "fall" and time to get serious about school again. It sure didn't feel like fall but we were just kids and trusted our parents. They learned early in parenthood to never use the phrase "Indian Summer" around us, i.e. "Oh look, it must be our Indian Summer". All we heard was "SUMMER" and we reveled in the knowledge that summer hadn't left us yet. Yep, we had to go to school but afterwards we had a whole afternoon to frolic with abandon. My dad called this "acting like a bunch of wild banchees". We had no idea what he was talking about so we gleefully left the indoors to play wild banchee on every occasion. The heat of summer didn't bother us so the heat of Indian Summer sure wasn't going to get us down.

On one occasion my brother Glenn and I were outside on a Saturday afternoon playing our version of football. It was a hot Indian summer day. Although it was fall in our minds (we were playing football after all) it was hot. All of a sudden I got dizzy and fell over. Glenn thought he had hit me too hard, and he probably had, but actually I was just too hot. I lay there for a minute or two while Glenn continued the game and scored three touchdowns. I finally got up and headed for the house. Glenn asked where I was going and I told him I was going in to take a nap. "A NAP?!" he asked with big eyes and worry all over his face. "Why do you want to take a nap for crying out loud? It's Indian summer!" I didn't know it but I was entering a new threshold of my life. I was entering....well, I don't know what I was entering but I knew I didn't want to play football in 100 degree weather any more. A nap sounded really nice. I have stayed in that frame of mind and body up to and including today.

You would think at seventy I would be old enough and smart enough to not be fooled by our three or four days of fall but I'm not. I have several projects outside that I started with joy on those beautiful days. I can guarantee you those projects will not be touched again until we have another few "fall" days in late November. I will have to work fast though because Indian summer has a tendency to sneak in a few kicks in the gut during this time right before we enter winter. Winter is just too cold to work outside. Sometimes it gets down to the low 40's.