Fading October

October is usually one of my favorite months, but this year, October forgot to come. Well, actually it did come, but it brought with it an abnormal amounts of rain and cooler than normal temperatures. More often than not, the jeweled colors of autumn, gold, ruby and jade, were displayed on a backdrop of gray skies and rain.

It was no different in North Central Texas where I spent most of last week. Several evenings during my six-day stay were spent listening to thunder and watching the radar to see if we would get five inches, or five tenths of an inch, of rain.

The day after I came home, I took a walk, hoping to catch the last of the fall color. I walked past the old Southport Lighthouse and snapped a few pictures of bare trees. Closer to the beach, the trees still had some color, but somehow an image kept coming to mind. It was that of an old woman, who in an attempt to keep up appearances, dabs bright red lipstick on a pale face. Somehow, both the image of the old woman, and the half-naked trees, made me a little sad and sorry that October had flown by so quickly.

After my walk, I spent some time catching up on the blogs I follow. I saw that Loreen, the 1,000 Mile Beach Treker, will be spending a week in the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. Cool. The restoration at the Southport Lighthouse is almost complete and I have heard that in the spring will be open for visitors. Maybe they will also have a visitor/volunteer program as the one at Grand Traverse that Loreen is doing, but I won’t apply. Too close too home. Maybe they have one at the Key West Lighthouse. If they do, I’ll apply for February. Why do I think I won’t be the only one?