this post is totally inspired by my long-time blogging friend over at ohhonestlyerin.com, who blogged today with the following sentence: “I am already getting the tickley sensation in my belly thinking about upcoming FALL stuff.”

because i could sure relate to that! the other day i was like, oh! i should start my spooky movie watchlist! only to realize that spooky movie month is still a month away.

in my old age, i have come more and more to really appreciate spring and summer. spring is my favorite season at this point, barely barely edging out fall. but spring doesn’t bring the tickley tinglies (probably hope – the thing with wings in your chest, so emily d. says). there are only two things that bring this for me: the far-off thought of fall and the far-off thought of christmas, when the seasons are  j u s t  about to start and they haven’t completely gone off the rails, commercewise.

i hate that it’s dark now at 8:15 p.m. i miss the gloaming at 10 p.m. i hate that my garden is overgrown with weeds and dying plants. i miss the songbirds and chattering rodents. i hate that the frogs are long gone and now the drone of crickets and high-pitched cicadas overrule all other outdoor sounds. i hate that once again, summer’s on the way out.

but.

i sure do love october. it’s still a month away, but october one-eth cometh. here’s what’s in store!

1. i’ve already started the pumpkin coffee thing because i have made it WELL KNOWN that caribou can’t seem to keep pumpkin in their stores past the end of september for some reason. it doesn’t even get stocked in october!!! they should offer pumpkin flavor through thanksgiving. what a bunch of losers.
2. in about two weeks, i’ll be telling stan that his month is coming. he’s spooky looking. he’s spooked all the time.  october is the perfect month for a scaredy cat like him. i’ll try to wrangle the halloween jingly cat collar on him for at least one pic.
3. the end of september is RAGNAR TRAIL. you’ll hear more about that later, but i do enjoy a run through the woods with the leaves changing.
4. scary movie month. through october, i like to watch all the halloween classics, mostly campy scary movies like evil dead and scream because i can’t handle real scary movies. of course i’ll watch hocus pocus and maybe try to find some old disney halloween classics. can’t go wrong with some scary movies during october!
5. the first two weeks of october in MN are the best. the leaves are peak color (usually – we’ll see what happens with this year being so dry) and it’s a great time to get out and take pics. hopefully the colors cooperate and there aren’t gale force winds that blown them all off the trees by october 3.
6. sometime in the first half of october, i finally get around to putting up fall decor and lighting my “autumn leaves” candles, etc. no need to rush this. the first half of september is still summer, and my fall decor stays up through november, so i wait until at least october 1 to put up any semblance of a red leafed decor item in the house.
7. i’ll roast my pie pumpkins i grew this year and then make some pumpkin bread and save some for some pumpkin pie at thanksgiving, but i’ll head down to a pumpkin farm that’s about 3 miles from my house to load up on carving and decorating pumpkins. they have a few heirloom varieties and usually some squash (i do like me some good eatin’ squash).
8. and i’ll be on the lookout for basic white girl fall thoughts while i’m out and about. last year i heard this gem: “i really like fall, but i sure do hate that it’s cold.” honey, what do you think fall is?? axial tilt does that to a planet.

anyway, welcome to september, the fake fall. it’s still summer, so let’s not get too excited yet. just enough to get the winged tickly tingles.