Fall seems to be about to fall

Well, the heat wave broke, and now there's that autumnal feel to the air. The leaves aren't turning, but my dad would say there's a chill in the air, especially in the evening.

Last night we had at least one big thunderclap. My dog must have heard it an instant sooner than I did. I was asleep when I felt him jump, startled, and it woke me up. Immediately came a long roll of thunder, then the sound of a downpour. Since it was the middle of the night, I was not at my most aware, and I barely said a few reassuring words to the dog before falling asleep again.

I was talking to a woman at work and said I found the cooler weather a relief after the several muggy days we had. I said, "If I wanted weather like that, I'd live in Michigan." It turned out that she had lived in Michigan, too, for a few years, and we reminisced about the unbearably humid summers. As the conversation wound down, she made a remark a lot of people make about the Midwestern climate, "At least there you get four seasons." "Yeah," I said, "but two of them suck." No offense, Michiganders, but summers there are humid and buggy, and winters are cold, slushy, icy, gray, and grim.

Meanwhile, from here in the temperate Northwest, pictures of pansies and petunias.