Shorter Days

(I've added a new ending since yesterday)

Tanning salons and shorts notwithstanding, there's no denying the inevitable. The pool near the community garden is still open, but I notice there's a lot more sunbathing on the warm edges and a lot less splashing. The garden itself is filled with late August's horticultural staples: black-eyed Susans, once-pink echinacea fading to a mauve, overgrown cosmos and nasturtiums. Soon they'll turn off the overhead fountains in the wading pools, and then there will be a week of cleaning up before the pool -- they just opened it, didn't they? -- is drained.

" I think people are freaking out a little about the end of summer," J. said to me at 1:00 am on a weeknight, when we're awakened by uncharacteristically noisy partyers and the sound of breaking glass in the alley. We had to get up and turn off the window fan in the middle of last night, and this morning the thermometer, which has rarely gone below 70 degrees, was at 64, so I wore my jean jacket and wrapped a cotton scarf around my neck for the ride to work. Passing the elementary school up the block, I saw that the inside lights were on and teachers' cars parked along the side, and got that instinctive sinking feeling in my stomach, almost as if I were going to have to go back soon myself.

Last night we rode our bikes over to the Mile End and wandered down Esplanade, past the industrial reno store, the storefront of the guy who collects lures, the Mile End Mission, the Asian florist - plants cascading from the second floor balcony, covering the street, even the top of a parked car. We stopped at a tiny Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, our orders taken by the husband and cooked by the wife.  Later, waiting for a light, we watched Hasidic Jews, eyes downcast under their huge round fur hats and arms clasped behind their backs, hurrying home before sunset, black coats flapping.

I looked up at the water towers on the roof, the moon rising behind them; there was a definite chill in the air. In the Brazilian restaurant on the corner of Waverly, only one man sat in the outdoor chairs; he had a long yellowed beard, wore a hat and long sleeves, and seemed lost in a hefty book. A young woman and man sat inside near an open window, finishing their meal. She stared intently at the spoon going round and round in her coffee, and then placed it in the saucer with a decisive click. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's been nice, but I'm going to have to wind this down."

Comments

[zuleme]

yeah, sigh, slowing down here too. But we are taking a week at the beach in September. Nice to look forward too. I love fall but this summer went by way too fast.

[laurie]

the light! we are losing the light in the mornings and evenings. i would not mind the cold of winter at all if we still had 12 hours of daylight.

[Natalie]

Oh yes, that sinking back-to-school feeling! How it lingers still, after all these years. Summers seem to have shrunk more and more - or is it just me?

[Kim]

It still feels like high summer here. We wake up to 80 degrees and right now it's 102. I suppose the evening darkness comes a bit earlier, but with these temperatures, it seems a blessing.

[Pat Temiz]

Here in south west Turkey our hot, and this year humid, summer is still churning on. We won't see any real noticeable drop in temperatures (day or night) for a good month yet. Where we live autumn is a very minimal affair but in October we are going up to Trabzon in the north east then into Georgia for a few days and I am really looking forward to seeing leaf colour on trees. Here our trees are mainly conifers or other species whose leaves don't drop so I do miss the leaf colour. Days are shortening but as it is Ramazan I know that all our fasting neighbours are glad to lose a couple of minutes from each day's fasting time.

[sitiaishah salim]

Beth,
It's raining here now.Not heavy but heavy enough to wet the leaves, branches and a small puddles have started to form here and there.Observing the evening sky, there is a usual long fond exhale that I'm missing summer already :)).Enjoy the rest of lovely summer, Beth.

[dale]

Such a magnificent essay, Beth.

[Hattie]

What a wonderful eulogy. You had a marvelous summer.