Tuesday Coffee Chat: Talking Cool

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week she asks the question, Fall Aesthetic -  What gets you in the mood for the Fall Season?   Pumpkin Spice?  Wool sweaters and knee high boots?  Candy Corn?   Let's all get cozy with warm thoughts as we head into Autumn. 

Let's face it.  Living in south Louisiana in the swamps, all it takes to look forward to Autumn is to hit June with temps in the 90's and humidity so bad you have to grow gills to breathe.

Down here, we don't get a "real" winter.  We get a couple of hard freezes, maybe a threat of snow once in a while.  Every ten years or so, we get just enough snow that sticks that the kids can have a snowball fight.

Spring is just the time where it's a little less cold but not yet really hot.  Those who spend a few months with snow on the ground look forward to it melting.  For us, spring means the war against heat prostration is about to begin.

What we get are the brutally hot summers that sap your strength and make you want to die if your A/C isn't working.

That means we look forward to Autumn with all the fierceness of a defensive lineman looking for a quarterback to run over.

Yes, most people down here look forward to football.  Unfortunately for us, we usually wear shorts to the games until November.

These last few days the nighttime temperatures have been moderate enough that we've gotten to open the windows and let the fans blow the cooler air in, and the A/C hasn't been needed at night.  We still have to use it during the day, and our cars, sitting out in the hot sun all day, are still saunas in the daytime, the metal seat belt buckles almost capable of being branding irons.

Soon and very soon, we will be huddling around the space heaters.  It will be nowhere near as cold, though, as a real winter up north.

In between, we will have a few days of fall weather.   Most of our trees don't turn pretty colors.  The grass will just quit growing and we won't need to worry about mowing.  The squirrels will bury acorns everywhere and forget most of them and we will be pulling up little sprouting trees come March or April.

We pull out sweaters to put on in the morning and discard them by 10am, then go looking for them again as the sun goes down.  There will be pumpkin spice almost everything, even though some days will still be warm enough that you will want a pumpkin spice iced coffee instead of a hot one.

But we won't have the searing heat, we will be able to breathe without gasping, and we will enjoy the cool evenings and what we call "gumbo weather," the time of year when something warm in a bowl is a treat and not a torture.

Our neighbors are decorating for Halloween already, the Methodist church up the highway will have their pumpkin patch fundraiser open soon (buy an overpriced pumpkin and the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity or the Battered Women's Shelter), and it's beginning to look a lot like we won't melt off the map.

Happy Fall, Y'all.

Today is:

Buttering-Up Final -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Golf Lovers' Day -- internet generated, enjoy if you love golf

Ieiunium Cereris -- Ancient Roman Calendar (fast for the goddess Ceres)

Improve Your Office Day -- and water that plant while you are at it!

Independence Day -- Lesotho(1966)

International Toot Your Flute Day -- an internet generated day for shameless self promotion

Kanelbullens Dag -- Sweden (cinnamon roll day)

National Ship in a Bottle Day -- another one i can't find a source for, but it's listed everywhere

National Taco Day

Nihonmatsu Lantern Festival -- Nihonmatsu, Japan (one of Japan's 3 largest lantern festivals; through the 6th)

Peace and National Reconciliation Day -- Mozambique

Rosh Hashanah -- Judaism (ends today at evening)

St. Francis of Assisi's Day (Patron of animal welfare societies, animals, birds, ecologists, ecology, environment and environmentalists, families, lace makers/lace workers, merchants, needle workers, peace, tapestry workers, zoos; Italy, especially Assisi, as well as several other cities around the world; against dying alone, fire)

     Blessing of the Animals Day -- at many Catholic Churches, in honor of the Saint

St. Petronius' Day (Patron of Bologna, Italy)

10-4 Day (C.B. 'ers) -- fourth day of the tenth month, ten-four, good buddy, etc.

Tewa Deer Dance -- Tewa Native Americans (celebrating the cosmic duality of the feminine and masculine, and honoring male and female ancestors; through the 7th)

Vodka Day -- internet generated

World Animal Day -- International 

World Dairy Expo -- Madison, WI, US ("Celebrate 50!" is this year's theme, since it's the 50th anniversary of the expo; through Saturday)

World Space Week begins -- International

Anniversaries Today

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, 1957

The Soviet Union launches Luna 3, 1959 (first satellite to photograph the moon's distant side)

Birthdays Today:

Rachael Leigh Cook, 1979

Alicia Silverstone, 1976

Abraham Benrubi, 1969

Christoph Waltz, 1956

Anita DeFrantz, 1952

Armand Assante, 1949

Susan Sarandon, 1946

Clifton Davis, 1945

Anne Rice, 1941

Jackie Collins, 1937

Alvin Toffler, 1928

Charlton Heston, 1924

Buster Keaton, 1895

Damon Runyon, 1884

Edward Stratemeyer, 1862

Frederic S. Remington, 1861

Rutherford B. Hayes, 1822

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, 1807

Debuting/Premiering Today

"The Alvin Show"(TV), 1961

Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major(Shostakovich Op. 107), 1959

"Leave It To Beaver"(TV), 1957

Snoopy, in the Peanuts Comic strip, 1950

Dick Tracy(Comic strip), 1931

Today in History:

One of the largest naval battles in history, the Battle of Lake Poyang, ends when the Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeat Chen Youliang, 1363

The first full English translation of the Bible, sometimes called the Matthew Bible, which contained the work of translators William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, is printed in Switzerland, 1537

Pope Gregory XIII's calendar adjustment that bears his name takes effect, with tomorrow being not Oct. 5, but Oct. 15, 1582

Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts drafts its first code of law, 1636

Peter Stuyvesant establishes America's first volunteer fire department, 1648

Christian Huygens patents the pocket watch, 1675

The state of Belgium is created after separation from the Netherlands, 1830

The New Orleans Tribune becomes the first black daily newspaper, 1864

The Orient Express, linking Turkey to Europe by rail, makes its first run, 1883

Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, 1941

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature, 1991

The Rome General Peace Accords ends a 16 year civil war in Mozambique, 1992

NATO confirms invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, 2001

SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space, 2004

What is believed to be the oldest high-altitude human settlement is found in Kokoda, Papua New Guinea, 2010