Musings - On the editor's mind

374 issues printed since July 5, 2017. 15 weeks to paper’s final issue

This is written on a damp day, a cool and gray Monday, Labor Day. It is very fall-like, as it was a couple of weeks ago, when the skies were also overcast, the rain kept coming down and temperatures barely topped 60 degrees.

Fall’s appearance always seem sudden to me, a surprise. It should not be. Sept. 1 is the start of meteorological fall, as clear and certain on the calendar as the equinox (almost) three weeks from now.

And the weather has turned, even if we will be teased and made hopeful again by 80 degrees days later this week.

It was like that in Minnesota where I lived for almost 10 years. Labor Day is the last day of the state fair in St. Paul and the family always attended that weekend. It was invariably hot, sunny and a sweaty experience. Then boom, Tuesday, the day after, the sky seemed bluer, the days were definitely shorter and the air cooler. Suddenly it was dark early and the sun’s rise was obviously later in the morning.

And every year that surprised me. Where did summer go?

But in truth, shadows have been lengthening for weeks, the sun has steadily retreated southward in its daily trek across the sky and the evening light has been softer, too. And, just like last year and the years before that, following the patterns and rhythms not only of nature but the universe.

The equinox will mark astronomical fall, with the dark after sunset lasting longer than 12 hours and the precious light subtracting into ever shorter days. Rains will come and also snow geese, Canada geese and trumpeter swans, assuring us that the season’s change is indeed upon us.

Summer is not over. The weather forecast tells us that. The coming hot weather will bring smiles to our faces. But, just as certainly, fall is on the way.