Spring Forward, Fall South

This is Hume-Fogg High School. It's located right in downtown Nashville just a block or two from my office. Every year when the new school year starts, I am reminded that, as a kid back in Colorado, school started on September 3 every year and not too long after Daylight Savings time would end. Now school starts sometime in the beginning of August and Daylight Savings time runs to sometime in November. Makes me wonder why do it at all. As a kid, I always equated the start of FALL with school. The days became a bit cooler and by October we had falling leaves and even snow (it was Colorado after all.)

Here in Nashville, fall is a mere 2 weeks long. It's never the same time, but I can plan on those two weeks of easy weather, cool breezes and turning off the AC to get the windows open. After those two weeks, we have rain, rain and - you guessed it, more rain. Though many would deny it, the South has a fifth season, which falls sometime around the end of summer and the beginning of winter (along with that 2 week fall period.) It's called Hurricane Season.

Tropical Depressions start mixing it up out in the Caribbean (Why do they call them Depressions? Are they sad about the weather, too?) and before long they start marching in toward the coast of Florida. Usually, (USUALLY) they break up before they get too far inland, so we here in Tennessee only see a couple solid weeks of heavy rain followed by light rain, followed by drizzle and...lather, rinse, repeat.

Rain in Tennessee means humidity regardless of the season. Humidity that can be 80% or more at 7 in the morning. Makes you feel like you just stepped out of a shower. Oh and Rain? Means that while my 'Bubba' in Colorado is putting away his lawn mower for the winter, I'm still worrying about getting one good dry day to mow just one more time (or maybe two or three) before the cold weather really sets in. You don't want the snow (yes, Nashville gets snow but we'll get to that later this winter) piled up on extra long grass, that's just not kosher. So, if the weather won't let you, you may have to get out in that drizzle and get the grass mowed at least one last time.

Nothing says "Where is that dang foole* from?" than mowing the yard in the rain. I've done it and it's probably why none of my neighbors really consider me one of the 'good ol' boys'.

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* I use the extra 'e' on Foole to draw emphasis to the fact that only a true Foole such as myself would mow his lawn in the rain. At least it's not an electric mower.