Autumn Can Bring Behavioral Changes

As appeared in the Albuquerque Journal Rio Rancho section 10/8/11.

Fall is in the air, and I am not sure I like it.

Of course, I couldn’t wait for it back in July when the swamp cooler was going 24/7 and it still wasn’t cool enough in the house. But the change of seasons brings change within. I feel like I have spring fever all over again the way I’ve been cleaning the house lately.

Does the change of seasons have an effect on you? Are you cleaning more? Cooking more? Things like chili or stews?

Are you cutting your lawn for the last time of the season? My friends back in Ohio did just that, cleaned the mower and tucked it away in the shed next to the snow blower, which won’t be sitting dormant for much longer. Doesn’t that make you feel good, especially us snowbirds, knowing our sun is still going to shine and we can usually use a broom to get rid of our snow.

The cooler weather has me tending to my landscape, that’s for sure. Tidying up the grounds before the leaves begin to fall doesn’t really make any sense, it must be instinctual.

I have been pulling weeds and sweeping my xeriscape, and wondering when my agave stalk is going to come crashing down on my lamp post, or worst yet my house. Yes, the near 20 foot stalk is still standing, but becoming a little hollower everyday. I am just hoping the big gust of wind that will eventually knock it down blows from the north and not the west.

And I will take credit again for the rain we had last Wednesday; I washed my windows on Tuesday. No kidding. I’m 3 for 3. You’re welcome.

One cool weather tradition that I have recently started is making Buckeye candy, packaging it up and mailing it back to my dad in Ohio.

Buckeye candy looks just like a chestnut type Ohio buckeye. But the candy is a round ball of peanut butter and powdered sugar mixture, dipped 2/3 up the sides in melted milk chocolate.

Trial and error proved this treat cannot be mailed during warm months and get there in the small round shapes it was so meticulously created. No, it ends up in one heaping mound of melted goo. So, last week I made my first batch of Buckeyes and shipped them back to my dad to kick off our chocolate candy season.
Even my cats feel the winds of change, my male cat is eating all the time now. I’m afraid he is going to turn into one of those really rotund felines waddling on 4 skinny peg legs underneath. How do you say no to a cat? How do you take the cat chow away and try to explain in English that he’s had enough food to feed all the animals in the house? Is he just bulking up for winter? Do they do that even when they are indoor cats?

Fall is in the air. It’s sweater weather. It’s crock pot dinner time. Its change your oil and switch over to the furnace time. What particular things do you find yourself doing now?

Quote of the Week: “To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” -George Santayana, American Philosopher, 1863-1952.