October, Where Have Ye Gone?

Only two more days left. You were just here. Where did you go? Can we freeze time so it's October every day?

Summer is hot and sticky. People are generally irritable. Summer does have one thing that no other season has...females in scant clothing. Winter brings the depressing holidays and massive germ infections. Spring brings allergies and an obligation to clean something.

October, by all measures, is nearly perfect.

It happens every year: it goes by too fast. My birthday is smack dab in the middle of it. A lot of my major life events happened in October, both good and bad. I joined the Navy in October, got married the first time in October, and my grandma passed away in October. Well, those are all bad. I almost forgot: the divorce from my first marriage was in October, so there is something good.

October brings pumpkins, raking leaves in the yard, cinnamon cappucinos, cooking that first pot of chili of the season, and the winter beers starting to populate store shelves around town. No other time of year comes close. October is as good as it gets.

What other month has a 'fest and type of beer named after it?

In Missoula, there are some streets you can drive down and see nothing but sidewalks covered with leaves all the way to the edge of Mt. Sentinel.

It can't last forever, but at least there are 31 days.

October, won't you stay a little longer? I really don't like December.