Fall Has Fell

Before giving me a hard time about the grammar involved in the title of this screed, you should understand that I lifted the title from the line of a poem. At least, I think it was a poem. It may have been a couplet. I am not really sure what a couplet is, though it does sound poetic. English is not my strong suit. Anyway, the bit of doggerel goes like this:

Spring has sprung.

Fall has fell.

Summer’s here

And it’s hot as hell!

If I knew the author of the literary masterpiece quoted above, I would give him or her credit. The truth is, I don’t know who wrote it, nor when I first heard it. I do know that it was a long, long time ago.

At any rate, this update is about the arrival of fall. Yes, we celebrated the arrival of the autumnal equinox last month, but that is not my definition of the arrival of fall. That happens when my air conditioner doesn’t run for 18 hours each day. And that was a recent occurrence.

When I lived in the mountains back in the 1980s, I lived in the best-built house I have ever owned. The fellow who built the house (in 1965) did not spare any expense when it came to building materials. It helped that his father-in-law owned a building supply business. There was a tremendous amount of wood in the house, in areas not normally seen. Each floor was cross braced with enough wood to build a small shed. Triple crown molding was everywhere, and the two magnificent fireplaces provided not only warmth, but also centers for relaxation and conversation.

But the house did not have air conditioning. It just wasn’t needed.

We had an attic fan which moved a large volume of air. On a summer’s evening we would open windows, crank up the attic fan, and enjoy the cool breeze. I would frequently fall asleep while listening to the frogs on the banks of the nearby Jackson River. We would generally wish we had air conditioning during the last two weeks of August. By the first week of September, reasonable weather had returned.

I expected similar weather when we moved to Asheville. I was wrong.

It was pretty hot here this summer, as it was most everywhere in the northern hemisphere. Our air conditioning unit is some 20-odd years old and is undersized for our current climate. And although we live near a temperate rain forest, the rainfall this summer was low by historical standards. Poor Kathy spent the summer watering plants to keep them from baking. Despite her best efforts, some of her plants were lost.

But that has now changed. I write this as the wind blows and the rain spits down on us. It used to be that hurricane season ended November 1. We are ten days into October, and the first hurricane of the Atlantic season to come ashore is causing trouble on the gulf coast. I am a bit nervous about the wind, just hoping that another tree does not come down on top of my (relatively new) pickup. I can’t even pronounce the name of this storm! The weather service has issued flood warnings, which doesn’t ease my anxiety. It will most likely not be a relaxing weekend.

On the bright side, the air conditioner isn’t running!