Opposite ends of the spectrum

It is amazing how quickly things can change. Saturday it was warm - in the 50's, which is warm for the Inland Northwest in late October. We washed cars, mowed lawns, and raked leaves. We watched soccer games while wearing only a light jacket. It was another beautiful autumn day. Sunday was a horse of a different color. It began with leaden skies that grew darker with each passing hour. By late morning it was drizzling. By noon it was pouring, but that only lasted an hour or so. It drizzled off and on for most of the day. Youngest Son arrived at about 2:00 PM. It is Fall Break at school, which means he had no classes on Friday, and won't have class until Tuesday afternoon. It is his first trip home since he left for school on Labor Day. He brought laundry. His car needs new tags. He needs to watch a French film and write a short paper on it. Each of these things would benefit from my assistance. That is why he is home.

Daughter, Son-in-Law, and The Grandchildren stop in for a short visit at about 5:00. They have not seen Youngest Son since he left for school. The Grandchildren are always happy to see him. We listened to tales of pumpkin carving and soccer greatness. Granddaughter scored 4 goals, bringing her team their first win of the season. Grandson scored 9 goals, also bringing his team a win, though he has done that all season long. Grandson is 5. His two front teeth are so loose they are usually pointing in every direction but straight up and down. But they are not loose enough to pull out just yet. He looks like a snaggle-toothed pirate, which is what he will be on Halloween. He is a very active 5 year-old. Sitting still is not his forte. At one point, he puts his legs through the armholes in his coat, and his head face first into the hood. He rolls around on the floor, knocking into everything. Eventually, he tries to disentangle himself from this getup, his head becoming momentarily stuck in the hood. As he extricates himself, he gets this odd look on his face; a look that moves between tears and panic like a ping pong ball between paddles. In that split second, we all realize he has knocked one of his teeth out - and has swallowed it. He doesn't know whether to cry or laugh. Son-In-Law laughs, and grabs Grandson, easing his panic and making him laugh. Daughter assures him that the Tooth Fairy will still visit him, even though the evidence of his loss is in his tummy. Knocking the one tooth out has loosened the other tooth sufficiently so that, as she wipes the blood from his mouth, Daughter is able to pluck the other tooth free as well. She tells Grandson that she will include a note, along with this tooth, under his pillow tonight, explaining the circumstances of his missing tooth, and the Tooth Fairy will compensate him for both teeth. Granddaughter plays along, though she has almost certainly figured out that Mom and Dad are the Tooth Fairy. She thinks. She still has teeth to lose. Grandson laughs, his newly gap-toothed smile bringing a chuckle to us all. His speech is affected, and he laughs at himself. He sticks his tongue out through the opening. He is quite amused by his new smile. Time to go, they all give us kisses and hugs, stop to light the candles in the pumpkins at the door before they depart, waving as they drive off into the growing darkness. It is only 6:00 PM, yet it is already dark. The end of Daylight Savings Time caught us by surprise this morning. The early darkness confirms it.

We return to the French film we are watching – Amélie. It is an unusual film; unusual, but interesting. The film ends. We return to television for a while. The chimes out front are chiming loudly. We realize the wind has kicked up. In fact, it is howling. The Spouse looks outside and announces that it is snowing. I think he’s being melodramatic, so I look for myself. It is snowing! The wind is whipping the trees. Leaves are swirling. The pond is covered in leaves. We are not ready for this. The Audi has its highway tires mounted still. The BMW is in the driveway, not the garage. Youngest Son’s snow tires are at his brother’s house, not on his car – and he has to drive back to school. The pond is not covered with the screen that keeps the leaves out – and it is now covered in leaves. The leaves will all sink, and rot. Next spring, we will have to drain it, and clean out the rotted leaves. It is a smelly, nasty job. It is 31 degrees out, and it is snowing like mad.

This is early for snow. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. I remember when Halloween almost always meant snow in the days immediately preceding it, or on the holiday itself. Kids would come trick-or-treating so bundled up you could barely tell what their costume was. But for the past several years, it’s been almost warm on Halloween. Snow has rarely made an appearance until Thanksgiving, or later. In fact, snow on Thanksgiving has been so uncommon in recent years that ski resorts around here rarely plan on opening until much later. When we first moved here, in the early 80’s, the ski resorts always opened for Thanksgiving weekend. Global warming, or maybe just cyclical weather, has changed that. Is this year going to be different?

The sun was up before 6 AM today. It feels weird. Good, but weird. It’s been dark in the morning for a while now. I feel more awake when the sun is up. Unfortunately, its early rising means it will be setting early too. It will be dark when I leave work now. It will be dark long before I leave work. I don’t like that. In another month, it will be dark at 6 AM again, and dark by 4 PM, and I will go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. I really don’t like that. It’s 25 degrees outside.

The dawning day reveals the effects of last night’s storm. The trees, which just yesterday were laden with leaves, and seemingly content to hang onto them for some time to come, have been stripped nearly bare by the wool-mittened winds. The lawn is covered with leaves covered in snow. Unless it warms up and dries up between now and next weekend, they will likely stay there all winter. The deck and lawn are snow-covered. It’s not deep, barely half an inch, but it is snow. The streets are clear, fortunately, making the tire situation less dire than it appeared last night. Les Schwab will be swamped, though, so the Suburban may be pressed into action as my daily driver until we can get the tires changed over. If the Audi had all-season tires on it, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it has speed rated 18” highway tires on it – not at all suitable for driving on slick roads. At least Youngest Son’s car has all-season tires on it. He can go back to school and not even bother with the snow tires for a while as he does little driving on a day-to-day basis. Besides, it probably didn’t snow in Spokane, and probably won’t for a month or so.

Remember that commercial – “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”? Looks like Mother Nature fooled us. Nothing about the weekend even hinted at this dramatic change. I’m not ready for snow yet. I need another month or so. Are you listening, Mother Nature?