On & Off Earth

October, the gateway to Fall, gets started looking much like summer. Trees, farms and lawns, after three wet months, remain lush and green but late hay harvests and hints of color in the forest tell a tale of pending change. The dogwoods are the first to turn up the color, both with leaves and berries. Sassafras and tupelos (black gum) are quick to join in and dump the green chlorophyll, letting the background reds and yellows shine through.

September is a sneaky month. This first week, there is little doubt it is still summer but change, as always, is creeping in from all directions. The first sneaky change I noticed, back in mid-August, was the sunlight bypassing my overhanging eaves and shining onto my desk. The loss of daylight is subtle in the early summer but is picking up speed as Earth’s tilted orbit sees the sun wrap up its annual northern hemisphere tour at the Autumnal Equinox at 8:05pm on the 22nd.

Growing up in Richmond, we occasionally took a road trip to visit family west of Lexington. That meant driving Rt. 250, Broad Street Road, prior to the construction of I-64. Along that fairly straight but rolling drive, we were always on the lookout for the first cresting of a hill when we could see the mountains far off in the distance. I had a flashback to those days recently in Louisa because it is in Louisa where you can first see those Blue Ridges.

The use of superlatives in our world has reduced their original impact to the mundane; neither a pizza nor a sandwich will ever be: ‘epic’. Very little that happens on a daily basis is ‘unbelievable’ any more. One word that does seem to be holding up, either as an adjective or a noun, is the word, extreme.