Seasons Change

Ah don't you just loooove both days of the fall season that we now have here in the Midwest? J Gosh I love it when its 90 degrees one day and then a week later it's cold and raining. What happened to my very favorite season of all? I sure do miss autumn, fall, whatever you like to call it.

(old person voice) Back when I was a kid, fall lasted from about the first of October until the end of November. (end old person voice) Sure you occasionally got a good snow right around Thanksgiving. But that was okay (and still would be by me). Actually when I was a young'un, it started getting into "jacket weather" around mid-September.

Fast forward 25-30 years.

NOW we get near 100 degree weather all the way THROUGH September and the 80's through the second week of October. Sheesh! What's a guy to do? You know what I think? I think it's not fall that I miss so much but rather the youth that I remember with it. Now stay with me here ... I enjoy my life, yes siree Bob, I do. But like most of us, those willing to be honest with ourselves, I think life hasn't turned out like I expected or perhaps I wasn't told what to expect and so the expectations I drew for myself were from, as it turns out, an empty well.

I'll try and bring this around I promise so as not to be depressing :)

I think what I miss most about fall is the brisk, fresh feel of energy in the air. The friskiness that you'd see in the animals as they sensed the approach of winter and burned off the last of summer's energy as they prepared to rest and wait for Spring's warm return. Often as a child, I'd spend my whole day outside playing in the leaves or just walking in the woods. My cousin and I would pack our backpacks with a lunch and take our bb-gun out, spending the whole day riding our bikes along trails in the woods and back near the "old mines" not far from our houses.

We didn't worry about falling into those mines, didn't worry about breaking our legs and not being able to get home, and didn’t worry about the woods being riddled with copperheads. Nah. We were just in it to have fun. The troubles didn't matter because we were focused on the goal. And the goal was adventure.

So to wrap it up, and self-analyze what I've written before me in pixels and print, I guess I'd have to say that I think I've been focused too much and for far too long on the problems and maybe I've missed some adventures along the way. Speaking from a dad's perspective and in no way demeaning that of a mom, sometimes, you feel like you're trying to get this whole "plane" of having a family depending on you, into the air. If you can just get it off the runway and into flight ... now if you can just get it to a certain altitude ... now there is this destination you need to reach ... well then after all that is done, well then you won't feel bad about having a hobby, or heading out to a movie with friends, etc.

The bad part about waiting for all that “fun stuff”to for yourself while you sacrifice all this time to others is that you (or in this case me) end up missing a lot of fun stuff along the way. You kind of wake up one day and realize/remember some things you missed or could have done differently. That life really isn’t all as serious as you make it out to be. I mean you realize this if you take the time to go back through things like I have/did. (I used to wear this t-shirt all the time that said “Don’t be so serious, it’s only life”. Man, it’s been a long time since I thought of that.)

Also, you realize you could have done the things you wanted to AND the things you needed to if you’d just opened up to your family and not been an idiot J And I mean that in the nicest way, lol! And then you realize like I have, that you’re starving for good friends, for good talk, for some genuine innocent fall-like fun again and that you’ve been missing it for so long.

So the lesson is this, Dads. Don't lose site of the adventure going on around you while you focus on your flight plan. But most importantly don’t forget to include the people on the “plane” with you as to how the flight is going and whether you need to make any detours along the way. They boarded the plane because they wanted to go with you wherever you wanted. They won’t mind a pit-stop here and there :)

That's it from me for today true believers; tune in next time for more Oddly Oakensledge Orations!