It is beginning to feel like Autumn.
The temperatures, although still almost still "Face of The Sun" hot, are starting to drop down into a reasonably cool zone (high 50's - low 60's) at night, which makes for a pleasant morning walk, even if it does not really make the day any less heated. The sunlight is beginning to acquire that slant which it only seems to hit in Autumn (Oddly enough, there is not a similar slant of light when we transition from Winter to Spring. I have no idea why that is).
Commercially, of course, everything has already lurched to "Orange Gourd Spiced Everything". This amuses me as it always does; growing up, there was no "taste of Autumn" and pumpkins were something we had as pie only. Now, everything gets the "Orange Gourd Spice" moniker: for some things that works and many things that do not (as a whole, pumpkin spiced beer does not, although there is a delightful pumpkin beer that is often available at this time of year and is enjoyable - in small doses). More importantly, of course, Mallow Pumpkins from Brach's now fill the seasonal candy section of store shelves. A bag will eventually make it way to Taigh na Thoirdhealbheach Beucail where the amount of pumpkins will be rationed (two a day) and a second bag hidden somewhere else for consumption while the decoy bag is left out as a distraction.
I am feeling a bit Autumn-ish myself as well.
I have a sense - and I can give you no really meaningful reason for it - that things are winding down, somehow. That crossroads or decision point I keep hinting at and gesturing to seems to now be encompassing me, even though I cannot fully understand what they are asking me to decide or which road to take. Like Autumn, they are not "telling" me anything, but the leaves of my soul seem to start changing color anyway.
Is it some odd sense of needing to prepare, like the squirrels in my yard seeking to hide acorns for later in the season? Yes, partially. In that way, perhaps, Autumn is driving me to turn inward to look after those things that need to be attended to.
At the same time, it is not just as simply as "I need more Orange Gourd Spice supplies".
Preparedness for any emergency can take many forms, not simply the need to store more physical things. It is also the mental and philosophical preparation of the mind and sometimes the body; the fastening of memory and thoughts and learning into the mind to be referred to in the dark of Winter. It is this sort of thing that weighs on my mind equally as heavily; perhaps even more so than just the collection of things.
It is one thing to prepare in Autumn for a mild Winter that one overprepares for. It is a different thing entirely to not prepare in Autumn for the Long Winter no-one expected to come.
Yeah, I don't recall when pumpkin spice became such a thing but it hasn't been long. If the TV sit-com Seinfeld was still running, they would surely have dedicated a show to the topic.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Maybe 15 years ago? I wonder if it has something to do with a nostalgia that modern society creates for an agrarian past that so many want, but either cannot find or do not wish to actually live in. And yes, Seinfeld would have had a field day.
DeleteWith daylight at 12 hours and lessening every day that's a good clue about the approaching Dark Season. The Orange Gourd Spiced Everything season has followed every other season expansion, for the last month there's been TV commercials about buying fake Christmas trees. Getting ready is more than following the mantra of "Two is one and one is none," mind, body and neighbors you trust and know.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, I have not been to my Big Box Home Supply store of late, but I suspect it is all laid out there as well.
DeleteAnd yes, we can prepare goods and not be prepared in other ways.
I wonder if a certain all girl singing group has ever considered getting back together with the addition of an orange skinned singer.
ReplyDeleteShe would be Pumpkin Spice.
Autumnal feelings.
Until the last few years I went into Fall and Winter with the resigned knowledge that Spring would bring rebirth, life and a new hope.
But the combination of dealing with family issues, and the unrelenting barrage of negative politics have left my optimism tank as close to empty as it has ever been.
Well played sir, well played.
DeleteYou touch on one of my own thoughts as well - there is, at least for me, a very real sense that the future is not as hopeful as I used to feel it was (literally, thought it right before I read your comment). It is family issues and the thought we will need to go through this all over again, but also the sense that - in terms of the larger world in almost any sense - there seems to be very little "better" out there.
I feel it too. And I feel that my prep will be too little. It's a sinking feeling. I have too much to do and not enough umph to get it done. Spread thin these days....
ReplyDeleteSTxAR, mine as well. We do what we can and hope for the best.
DeleteI like that moniker of Orange Gourd Spice... I see future signage on certain items in our dept. Wonder if management will approve of "my" creativity? heh....(yes, I'm stealing.. er, borrowing... that verbiage. With your permission, of course) ;-)
ReplyDeleteNot looking autumnish yet but it'll erupt soon enough.
- hobo
Of course! Steal away!
DeleteYou make a good point of course - if we labeled the flavor as "Orange gourd spice" would it be as popular? I doubt it. Everyone feels nostalgic about pumpkins, almost no-one about gourds.
I'm going to have to appropriate the term "orange gourd spice" because it really suits my mood on the subject. Although I like cinnamon and nutmeg in measured doses, I think it really is overdone to the point of being overpowering just to remind us that it is fall. I don't need reminding.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I have mentioned this since you've been reading my blog but I used to own my own pumpkin business for about a decade and used the proceeds to pay for my college degree. It was quite a fun endeavor and one where nobody talked about orange gourd spice. I saw a meme recently of a field of white pumpkins that were left to "rot after being drained of the precious spices."
Ed - Like most thing Orange Gourd Spice season is a boon for marketers, who finally found something to tie to Autumn - and by "tie", we mean "Like to an anchor". One wonders when the inevitable counterculture reaction will come.
DeleteI did not know you owned your own pumpkin business. That is pretty cool, especially if you were able to fund college.
I think the counterculture reaction is already started judging by the pumpkin spice memes readily available.
DeleteI am seeing more Ed, so there is hope. My biggest hope is that someday it is simply "a thing", not "the only thing".
DeleteIf talking about a personal crossroads, you know my thoughts. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe "worldly" crossroads, that I wish I had more money to prepare for, I would say: if there is a complete breakdown of society, can you get to the personal crossroads in time.
And speaking of that, what is the latest on the fire? Praying all is well.
You all be safe and God bless.
Linda - The fire is at 85% containment now, which far beyond where they expected to be. Everyone has been able to go home - I will head out there next week to see the property as well as probably drive up to the town to see how it fared.
DeleteAs to the other crossroads - I think that the decision will be indicated, one way or the other, in the near future.
Good point about mental and philosophical preparedness, TB. It's so easy to overlook everything other than tangible supplies.
ReplyDeleteI think people who have been paying attention realize that a long hard winter is a possibility, although we're all hoping for the best. But everything seems to be going downhill so fast. If it was regional or national, that would be one thing, but it's global and more encompassing. Like STxAR, I wonder if I'm truly prepared.
Leigh, I am probably uber-sensitive to the idea of lost knowledge because 1) I like books (a lot); and 2) I have read enough to know what the loss of knowledge does to a people or civilization. But you cannot eat books, of course (and given the esoteric nature of mine, you cannot trade them for food either), so have supplies is just as important.
DeleteYour second paragraph perhaps encompasses my unspoken fear - there is a sense that things are moving so quickly and that there seems to be little realization of how quickly they are moving (or how badly things could go). The surrealism of my daily life experience versus what is going on in other parts of the world is shocking.