welcome...fall?

Fall is usually one of my favorite times of year. The beautiful fall colors of orange, yellow, and red. The sight of farmers in the field harvesting. The crisp morning with the usually sunny warm day. All these thoughts make me smile and want to reach for a cup of tea and a blanket.

No such luck down here. Fall, here in TX, is not the same as Minnesota fall.

1) Allergies. I have never EVER had allergies before. Of course I had the occasional sniffle from dust and what not, but nothing where I had to take something for them. Here, however, I was out of work for 2 days because I thought I had a bad head cold. Turned out, after about 5 days of treating it as one, it was allergies. I switched the pills I had been taking and, VIOLA! I am back at work and feeling way better. How strange is that?!

2) Colors. Here there are no pretty colors on trees, or the ground. All the leaves are still green. Same old same old. I asked around, wondering when they would change. The response? They don't. One day the leaves are green and on the tree, the next they are off and on the ground. How not-fun is that?!

3) Weather. Like I mentioned earlier, it is usally the time for crisp mornings and sometimes the occasional blustery day. Not here (not that I am complaining...). They weather here has definalty cooled off from the summer months, however, it is still in the 80's during the day. The morning and night are usually somewhere in the 60's...and I am starting to feel like that is "cold!" I hate to say it, because my 23 years in MN tell me that that is no where NEAR cold. It is a strange adjustment! Even more crazy? I am signed up to play in a sand (I repeat outdoor SAND) volleyball league starting this Thursday!

4) Halloween. This is one of my favorite times of year to decorate, minus Christmas, of course. It has been so hard to get in the fall mood when everything is still green and you don't see corn or beans that are ready to be combined. And instead of the traditional Haunted Maze in the cornfiled, there is Halloween Theme at Sea World and Six Flags. It is just entirely different! I have decided I still want to putt up fall colors, even if it is just in my house!

All in all, I am slightly happy the blistering "sweat as soon as you open the door" weather is gone, and I am enjoying the lovely 80 degree weather days. I guess this is just one more adjustment to living here, in TX.