If you love hot weather, then you are sorry it's September. You're sorry that life without heavy clothes will be over soon. You regret that putting on the warm sweaters at night and taking that last Corvette ride of the day is chilly business.
It's one of those inevitable seasonal facts: The sun in September is a friend whose visits to the neighborhood have grown shorter and more aloof. No longer does the Corvette sit in the driveway teasing for a ride after supper. No longer does the fire weed bush burn at lunchtime and refuse to change color at night.
It's a colder fire that burns in the sunset these days as if someone in the southern hemisphere has changed the position of the evening sunset. The nights are short, the shadows long. What were endless days, have become short bursts of warmth into which we cram last gasps of easy living.
As the chill increases, we ransack closet corners where sweaters have languished in seasonal exile. We drape blankets over the back of the davenport, comforters on the foot of the bed.
We prepare.
The dog has taken to curling on the carpet. She's abandoned linoleum. It feels cold -- not cool -- in the night. The cat naps in the early morning sun, absorbing its very warmth. Her fur a shade thicker than yesterday, her muscles limbering as she acknowledges the solar charge with an occasional scratch.
And then there's us.
We must think of taking the 'Vette off the road in another couple of months, caulk the windows, put away lawn furniture, the list goes on and on. The essence of September is in getting ready.
In New York, seasonal change rules our life. It has been a rainy summer for weather. With the Corvette getting such good gas mileage, many used the sports car as their main mode of transportation.
Waste no more days, my Corvette friend. Soon nights will come and we will burrow under warm blankets. It will be your only defense against a season of chill.
Wait for high noon these fall weekends when your engine and you finally warms. Tend to the matter of enjoying your sports car every chance you get for the time of hard ground will come soon. Soon, but not today. Today is warm. There's still time, time to prepare.
A Corvette Wave To You,
Donna Turner
