A week into balmy, verdant May, October has paid a visit. Cool, dry air has pushed in behind a Canadian cold front and it feels more like football than baseball season. The sun it too high for October but, if you close your eyes, you can easily picture the painted leaves and smell the wood smoke.
This minor hitch in the progression of spring is certainly not unusual in the American Heartland but it is a bit of a shock when your high temperature is suddenly lower than the recent lows have been. The wildlife, of course, are unfazed; the house wrens sing just as loudly, the garter snakes lounge in the flower beds and the common nighthawks zigzag across the evening sky, confident that their season has not betrayed them.
Only we humans, focused on the calendar, take note of this unseasonable chill. But, if it means that the hot, muggy weather of our Midwest summer will be delayed, I'm all for these autumn-like interludes. In fact, I'd welcome October anytime.
