We turned off the air conditioner last night, and opened the windows. Austin blew in on the wind and the cats went wild. Fall in Austin is a subtle change; shorts and flip-flops haven’t yet disappeared. It’s still hot, but less so. And the air smells different - dryer, cleaner. When I went swimming this morning, the pool was icy cold; the wind made crumpled ripples on the water and blew my kickboard rambunctiously into the fence.
With the windows open and the Austin Fall blowing in, I become nostalgic. I think of coming home from school and finding the windows thrown open, and my mother’s exuberance at the first non-humid day of the year. I think of making Halloween decorations after school and walking house-to-house selling Ascension Day School Haunted House tickets. I think of myself standing on the back of the couch, looking out the window, whining that I’m bored and asking when kindergarten will start. “In the Fall,” my mom says. “When is it Fall?” I ask. “When the leaves begin to fall from the trees,” says mom. “Oh. Look, the leaves are falling now! Is it time for school to start yet?”
we did the same thing yesterday, and i felt quite similarly.