How Do I Know Summer is Passing?

I know summer is passing because …

Granddaughter Emma has returned from summer with her father in the mountains of North Carolina.  She is 10 now, but somehow, older than ten — an inch taller, 2 shoe sizes larger and with pierced ears.

Elections are 60 days away.  Virginia has an election every year.  Does that happen elsewhere?  Being a Democrat in Virginia is tough going.  I know there are a lot of closet Democrats, but why?  The Republicans I’ve seen aren’t that scary, not necessarily very bright, but not scary.  Prince George County has 10 precincts in its 267 square mile footprint.  Xena gets a lot of miles on her every election day.

Acorns are dropping.  People with a lot of oaks know what I am talking about.  Sadly, we lost many of our oaks in Irene last year and subsequently had a few more taken down.  Broke my hear tto have them felled but watching oaks bending over double through my skylights is somewhat anxiety provoking.

Speaking of storms — I know it is Fall because it is hurricane season.  I am afraid of all storms that begin with “I” such as ice storm, Isabel, Irene.  I heard a couple of weeks ago about Hurricane  Isaac and thought oh, s****.  Thankfully, Isaac only threatened Republicans.  Of course, by now I know and have experienced a derecho so must add “d” storms to my scared-of storms list. Let’s not talk about the Louisa earthquake.

Finally, I know Summer is passing because I am longing for sweater days even though it is in the 90s most days.  But, Jack’s Aussie undercoat is starting to grow in so sweater days are not far away.

Where is that LL Bean catalog?