Let’s hear it for fall firsts

There can only be one ‘first fire pit’ of the season. It’s one of the classic fall firsts. It’s like Opening Day in baseball, or that special feeling race fans get in February when that green flag drops for the first time in Daytona.

There’s more ‘fall firsts’ to come – some good and some challenging. And while fall is just beginning, we can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re still right in the middle of the season of COVID.

Bring on the Christmas music

In normal times, Christmas music shouldn’t be played until the day after Thanksgiving.

But these aren’t normal times we are living in right now. That’s why I didn’t balk at the sounds of Christmas music being played on Magic 98.9 over Labor Day weekend. I embraced it.

Bring it on, I say!

Enjoying the view from the patio

There are two hummingbird feeders, three flowering hibiscuses, about a dozen sunflowers, some zinnias, and a few hyacinth bean vines wrapping themselves around some trellises. There are flowers and flora as far as the eye can see. Oh, and weeds too. There are always weeds.

That is what life looks like from the patio these days. In the fifteen years that I’ve called this house my home, I’ve never spent as much time on my patio than I have this year.

But this is no ordinary year. The world we knew just four months ago is not the same world we know today.

My turn for a COVID-19 test

“But alas, I knew this day would come – the day where I’d have to submit myself to a coronavirus test. Let’s face it – we’re all going to have to get a coronavirus test at some point. I was just hoping I could put it off as long as possible.”