Come on, fall

One of the people I follow on Twitter - Aven, maybe? commented the other day that there's a point in August after which, it may still be warm, but it feels like it's switched over to fall mode.

(Now, correcting for the fact that Aven lives in Canada and I live in Oklahoma...that day here should come early October...)

But at least today it's overcast. Which feels like an improvement. It's still kind of muggy but at least the sun isn't blazing away like it has been for so many weeks.

As I've said before, I like clouds and I like rain. (Really what I like though, is variation in the weather. Too many days of the same thing gets me down).

I'm waiting for the day - it already seemed to have occurred up in Illinois right before I left there - when the sunlight starts to take on more of a "golden" and less of a "white hot" tone. That's when it feels like fall. I'm sure it's tied up with the apparent angle of the sun in the sky.

(One of the things I love, and think is wonderful and fascinating, is the analemma. It always made me sad that my genbio students never seemed to think it was as cool as I did. And here's another great series of analemma photos, this time taken over Greek ruins.)

I notice this on a much smaller scale as I drive to work every morning. (Or at least, I can notice it when Mulberry Street is open and not messed up by construction - I drive a couple blocks east on it before turning onto First to go up to campus). In the summer, the sun appears to be north of Mulberry - and then in the winter, it's south of Mulberry (discounting those days when, because of the butt-end or very-beginning of DST, I have to drive to work in the dark). There are a few days when, if the sun is up when I'm driving to class, it's right smack in my eyes as I drive up Mulberry. (A Stonehenge effect! Mulberry-henge? Of course, it's not really keyed to any particular equinox or solstice or anything that I've noticed).

So, at any rate, I anticipate that day when I can feel like things have tipped over to fall. Because fall really is my favorite season. (Someday, when I have more flexibility of time - probably won't be until I've retired - I AM going to take a trip somewhere where there is good fall foliage and just stay there for like a week and drive/hike around and look at the trees. Because real "fall color" is one thing I miss living down here - most years, the leaves just kind of dry up and fall off the trees.)

(And mirabile dictu, the NOAA weather page took away our heat advisory! It's still supposed to be 102 today, but it might rain...and at any rate, 102 is cooler than what we've had for a while).

It is supposed to get "cooler" this weekend (mid to lower 90s, rather than mid to upper 100s). I thought I'd never look forward to, and think of, lower 90s weather as 'cooler' but there you are. (Maybe the heat has given me some form of Stockholm Syndrome. I know I feel like I've been a hostage to my house for several weeks).

I still plan to go antiquing this weekend. I'm strongly leaning towards Sherman/Denison (both towns have antique shops). The bonus would be that at the end of the antiquing day, I could make "big grocery store" run to either the Kroger or the Target...and be able to get stuff I can't get up here.

***

I helped out at the local...not sure what to call it, I don't like the name "soup kitchen," because we don't ever serve soup, and "soup kitchen" sounds very Depression-era to me - but a local charity that serves a free hot meal, mostly no questions asked, to anyone who needs one. (This is something the church I belong to does fairly regularly. I can't often help out because I usually have Monday afternoon commitments).

I remember how someone I used to know talked about this and the local food bank, how she felt those things just encouraged "continued dependence." And I have to disagree with the person on that...it's not like the people eating there are doing it to take advantage of it, it's not, I think, an "Oh, hey, if I eat here I don't have to buy food" kind of thing. No, it's more a "there's no food at all in the house, I will have no money until payday, and at any rate, I don't have a working car so how do I get to the grocery store?" thing.

I know that if I were in a situation where I had to go to an old school cafeteria every day, wait in line, be surrounded by lots of other people, and then eat whatever was provided me, I'd do whatever I could, if possible, to get out of that situation.

A lot of the people we served were elderly. A number of them were disabled in some way. The men who came through, most of them looked like day-laborers - their clothes suggested someone who did landscaping or roofing work. (Ugh, doing roofing in this heat!). One man, when I handed him his iced tea, commented that this was the first chance he had to eat all day.

So, I don't worry so much about "continuing dependence." I don't think the food we serve is so wonderful that a person would "scam" and not buy their own food if they could.

I know a lot has been said about "the poor" - and I know I've seen students of mine who complained they "couldn't afford" the textbooks for my class, all the while while texting on a fancier nicer cell phone than what I'd bother to have. And I'm aware that there are a number of people who maybe set their priorities poorly and who wind up not being able to pay bills at the end of the month because they spent frivolously.

But there are also people who are really, truly in need...those are the people we're feeding. I didn't see any fancy cars in the lot or anyone using a fancy cell phone. I hear about "food insecurity" - meaning there's a certain segment of the population, even here in the U.S., who cannot keep food on the table. Not because they spend their money on fancy toys, not because they can't plan...but because there's no money. The center that provides the food is in the "poorer" part of town and as I drove there I noticed many houses with windows and doors standing open - presumably the people do not have, or cannot afford to run, air conditioning. (And with our nights not getting down below 80 or 82...that must put a lot of physical stress on people.)

I think they said last night that 144 people came through for meals...maybe a few more because I think they just have the adults sign in, and there were a number of children. (One of the people who runs the place was also handing out school supplies to some of the kids...they also do a coat drive in the winter). One of the people in charge commented that they tend to see a peak before the first of the month (when checks come out) but that they'd been consistently feeding more people lately.

So, I don't know. While I don't have a lot of patience for the student who claims they can't afford a textbook (because they have car payments to make on a fancier car than they really NEED) or the person who goes into major debt trying to impress their neighbors...the people we fed last night are not those people.

I will say when I finished with my shift (4 to 6 pm - we stop serving at 6) and got home, I felt more gratitude than I had thought about in a while - for a good strong roof over my head, and the wherewithal to pay for air conditioning, and for a well-stocked fridge, and for the ability to choose what I wanted to eat for dinner, rather than having to take what was provided.