As a kid, did you ever trade your lunchbox Hostess cupcake for a classmate’s homemade cookies?
Then realized the chocolate chips were sneaky raisins. That your classmate’s mother considered sugar the devil’s invention.
Some of us seem destined for the short straw.
This month, though, we Hoosiers trade summer for autumn.
This flower child will miss petunias’ glorious, subtle fragrance. Hummingbirds and butterflies mooching off zinnias and cosmos. Hubby won’t miss mowing grass, but if the scent could be bottled, I’d buy 10.
If frost must clear out my flowers, fall’s show-off foliage more than makes up for the loss. Especially as I’ll be done with endless watering, weeding and feeding my gardens.
Instead, I’ll be raking, right? Seasonal trade-off.
And I gladly give up a hog farm’s stench on a 95-degree afternoon for fall’s clean crispness.
During summer, we don’t mess with coats or matching gloves. Also, we don’t lose them in three different places. During autumn, though, my old friend, last year’s parka, welcomes me warmly on chilly days.
Foodwise, I already miss sweet corn. I also miss potato salad, made with my mother’s recipe. She kept her signature dish in the same summer-only category as white shoes. I’ll probably do likewise.
During summer, I buy six kinds of fruit. To continue that during cold-weather months, however, requires a second mortgage. Weekly.
Still, who can reject fall’s trade-off? Apple crisp and caramel apples, or pumpkin pie and other yummy pumpkin spice foods? Plus, comfort food abounds.
Other seasonal trade-offs:
- I’ll miss: nightly cicada concerts and fireflies’ light shows. Welcome: mosquitoes’ demise.
- I’ll miss: sitting on restaurant patios. Welcome: sitting beside fireplaces.
- I’ll miss: barbecue fragrances pervading my neighborhood. Welcome: woodsmoke that says, “I’m keeping someone warm.”
- I’ll miss: our ceiling fan’s breezes at night. Welcome: quilts and flannel jammies.
- I’ll miss: flip-flop freedom. Welcome: favorite boots.
I will happily exchange:
- Flab-revealing tops for flannel shirts.
- Fruit processing at 10:30 p.m. versus consuming it in a cobbler at 10:30 p.m.
- Multiple daily baths to dispel sweat, bug spray and sunblock for single baths whose effects last more than an hour.
Unfortunately, we’ll trade air-conditioning costs for heating bills.
Still, doesn’t the seasonal trade-off seem fair?
Although good-for-us virtues, like those healthy cookies, lurk during both seasons, summer and fall taste good.
Your Extraordinary Ordinary: What seasonal exchanges will you make?
