Hello Darkness

Every year in August it starts to get dark at night. And every year I take it as an affront. What’s this nonsense? How am I supposed to see?

Time to dig out the flashlights and headlamps. You know, from that special place I put them so I would remember where they were. Um….

People generally assume that midwinter is the darkest season here. Wrong. Least hours of sunlight, yes. But darkest, no. The darkest time is now, with leaves still on the trees and no snow. It’s the only time we ever have can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark. When the leaves go away and expose the sky, and snow covers the ground, it is never this dark again.

This then is also the only time of year there can be scary noises in the woods and you absolutely can’t see anything. And the bears are still out and about. Not my favorite scenario.

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Before there was Craigslist…

Younger readers take note – this is what people did before there was Craigslist. It’s called a Bulletin Board. No, not the online kind, also known as a forum, but a real board, with pieces of paper stuck to it with push pins. You stand in front of it and read what it says on the papers. How crazy is that? This one is the best of several in town. It’s at the Post Office where a whole lot of us go to get our mail. It pretty much tells you at a glance everything that is going on in town, at least of a public nature. Buy a gun, take a yoga class, get organic vegetables, a car, a dog, an electric guitar, go to a performance, rent a cabin…

The bulletin board is also a “social media space” where you run into your neighbors checking their mail and reading the board. Usually just a brief conversation, how are you, the weather, etc. Kind of like Twitter, but in person.

Craigslist, Twitter and Ebay, all in one. Beyond virtual.

It’s August, fall is here.

Actually I see the very first signs of fall about July first. A yellow leaf here, a red leaf there, where before was only green and more green.? Nothing much, but the message is pretty clear.

By mid-August there is a lot of color in the undergrowth and the trees are just starting to show signs of changing.

White birch trunks in the morning sun on the trail

My Commute: White Birches glow in the morning sun on the trail.