8 Reasons Why I'm SO Ready For Fall

On the way home from work, Lisa made 2 stops. The first was to pick up a few things at the grocery store. The second stop was Dunkin' Donuts. At the grocery store, Lisa spotted a pack of colored crazy straws. I sip most of my beverages through straws. Yes, sometimes, even coffee. Hot or iced. Today, it was iced coffee. Pumpkin Spiced iced coffee.

That's right. Pumpkin Spiced. I broke my golden rule of no Pumpkin Spiced anything before the official start of the Fall season.

I sipped. No guilt. None.

You know why? This year, I'm SO ready for Fall. To the point where I'm going to break all of my seasonal rules.

After having to change most of our plans during Lisa's week-long vacation in August because of a record breaking heatwave and severe storms, and having to cancel all of our plans after Lisa was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, I'm SO over the summer season.

Done.

In fact, I've already mentioned the word Christmas more than once, thought about holiday cookie baking, bought cans of pumpkin, sipped Pumpkin Spiced coffee, and pounded the shit out of a few gigantic moths, during the evening hours, with a larger-than-life fly swatter.

I'm done.

Why?

1. I'm sick of the bugs. They've been horrible this year. We were infested with caterpillars and, shortly after, those ugly, creepy, crawly things turned into moths. Lots of them. Going outside was a challenge. I had to hold my larger-than-life fly swatter and use it like a manual hand fan just to keep them away. On the overnight, when I take a break from work stuff, the airplane sized moths come out to play. I also dodged a few of those beetles, the size of cats, with the black hook biters on their heads.

2. Meteorology is not an exact science. I know it's Summer. We live in New England. The weather is unpredictable. I get that. I'm used to it. However, we had some heatwaves and an overabundance of humidity. The threat of storms were almost daily. We don't leave the kids home alone if there are storms in the forecast. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time home. Which is fine. I'm not complaining, but we never got 90% of the storms. I joked with Lisa that we live in a dome. By mid summer, we were officially "in a drought."

3. I'm sick and tired of running the air conditioners. We have to keep our home cool because of Bodacious Biscuit Love, the kids, and Lisa hates the heat. I'm craving cool, later summer night air and crisp fall days where the temperatures are low and cool enough to take the air conditioners out. I won't miss the constant sound of them running. It drives me nuts.

4. The weather is messed up. The mild and wacky winter messed things up. Everyone I know who has fruit trees and plants and gardens complained that the gardening season was horrible. And, it was. One of our neighbor friends, who generously shares his produce, didn't get half of what he normally does. And, no berries and there may not be any pumpkins.

5. Limited use of the oven. During the summer months, I use the oven very little during the day. I save the baking for the evening and overnight hours. With the heatwaves and humidity, I haven't used the oven at all during the day. That has put a damper on creating new recipes for homemade dog treats. The nights, and in the wee hours of the morning, when running the oven during the Summer months used to be prime time, was greatly reduced this year. There were many nights when it was like a sauna in here because I needed to bake human treats and biscuit love. The fan in the kitchen window blowing out didn't help.

6. August was kind of an intense month. Too many lessons. Too many epiphanies. Too much thinking on the overnight. Too many people wanting to open doors that had been closed for many years. Too many eye-openers. Weather. Lyme. The panic before we knew it was Lyme.

7. I'm craving soup. I could eat homemade soup every day of the week. Lisa isn't a fan, but she will eat it when it's cold outside. It's an easy dinner to make. Top it off with homemade artisan bread, and it's the perfect meal.

8. I need cozy and quiet. It's been a loud summer and running the air conditioners all the time hasn't helped. For me, that's a huge distraction. I have a difficult time with constant noise. I'm looking forward to the day when the air conditioners are taken out and the the closed windows drowns out the noise outside.