Changes

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Today we had one of those early fall, near perfect, days where the sky is a perfect blue bowl overhead, the air is clear with no haze, you can still wear short sleeves without being either too hot or too cool.

It was just a pleasure to be outside. It would have been better of course if I had been in the mountains walking beside a stream or overlooking a valley from the mountain heights, or cruising a winding road punishing the tires and brakes on the curves and switch backs.

Here in NE GA the seasons sort of sneak up on you in subtle ways until you look around and say in surprise "hey, this is fall", or some other season. Of course our springs turn to summer before the official date, and we can have tee shirt weather up until Christmas sometimes. Nothing as definitive as my sister's weather up in the northern part of Maine, but then, we're not likely to get snow in September or June either.

It's way too easy to not pay attention to the progression of the days and nights. We just had the harvest moon this week. When I was younger running the dairy farm clear nights with a full moon would catch me gazing up in wonder at the sky. And as the moon waned gibbous I'd remember that man once strode (well, hopped and shuffled) across the barren whiteness of our nearest neighbor.

Will the country that set it's flag on the surface of that old moon be the ones to go back and really claim it for mankind? Or will we trade our inheritance for a mess of porridge, and cower lest someone accuse us of not caring about the children?