Ode to the Autumnal Equinox

People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that Fall is my favorite season by FAR. "Oh my God!! It just means Winter is on it's way! It's so gloomy! I HATE the cold!"

While I will admit the older I get, the more I dislike REALLY cold weather, I'd STILL rather have Winter than Summer.

So many great things happen in Fall:

• I love the smell of the heater the first time you turn it on.
• The turning of the leaves is such a refreshing change from the dinginess (dingy-ness?) that afflicts late summer foliage.
  
• I like the time change. There I said it. I LIKE it when it gets dark early. It feels cozy. It also makes for an earlier start to star-gazing.
  
• Coming home to a house full of the smell of comfort foods like chili or stew or roast beef...stuff that's rare in the summer due to heating up the house.
• I like the sound of walking through leaves and the smell of them burning (can you even do that anymore?)
• Warm days and chilly evenings are great.
• My BIRTHDAY happens in the fall! :)
• I like wearing my leather jacket. The first time it comes out is great.
• My favorite holiday happens...Thanksgiving. To me, it has all the warmth and family joy that Christmas SHOULD have but doesn't anymore after being sucked dry as a bone by commercialism (you tell 'em, Charlie Brown).
• NO BUGS!
• Though I don't particularly care for dressing up, I like Halloween. It's like Fall's opening bell (even though it takes place over a month after the equinox). I don't know how I feel about the time change occuring AFTER the 31st though. That was one of the great things about it when I was a kid: since the time had JUST switched, you weren't quite used to it yet so when you'd go out at dusk Trick or Treating, it'd feel like you were out for HOURS but when you got home well after dark you were surprised to find that it was only 7 O'Clock...strange.
  
• I guess it makes me gloomy or something but I just LIKE the way the world looks denuded of greenery. Hey, I like my music minor key too...sue me :)
  

My order of preference for seasons probably doesn't match many peoples'. If you put them on a graph, it'd go something like Autumn 100%, Spring 80%, Winter 65% and Summer 15%.

So I say "come on September 22nd!!"