Bryce Moore's Blog, page 165

Radio Podcast

Happy Tuesday, everybody! Remember last year when I was doing the weekly radio show for the library? Ever wonder what happened with that? Wonder no more.

I loved doing the show, but the time we were on wasn’t exactly making it so many people could listen. Taking an hour out of my week to be on the radio was certainly fun, but without anyone listening, I couldn’t really justify keeping it up. We talked to the radio folks, and they agreed (generously) to let us record our show ahead of time and then play it on the air during our normal time slot.

What does that mean for you? It means that I’m now branching out into podcasting. Better yet, I’ve got the first one up and ready for you to listen to right now!

We talk all about the On Our Minds program, as well as two of the books in it this year: Wonder and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. There are maybe a few too many “ums” throughout, but it’s our first one. Give us time.

The plan is to have one of these up every week school is in session. (Though come to think of it, we’d been hoping to start these at the beginning of the month, and here we are almost at the end of it . . . )

Like with anything new, I imagine there’s a learning curve ahead of us, but we have to start somewhere. Suggestions welcome, though I might not actually be able to follow any of them just yet.

Here you go!

The Myth of Success

So Tomas has created his own YouTube channel, attracted by dreams of all the money he’ll make through advertising. I’m not a guy to rain on someone’s parade, so I went ahead and set him up with my old Adsense account. Technically I guess I make the money, but I’ve told him I’ll pass on all the earnings to him. And after five days, he bounded in to tell me he’d made 57 cents so far.

I was floored, actually, because that’s much more than I thought he’d make. Like, 100 times more at least. If this was how much money YouTube ads brought in, no wonder so many people were doing it. Back when I used to do ads on my site, I made something like $100 after 2 years of running the ads. That’s one of the main reasons I ended up just ditching them altogether. (Though I do consider bringing them back now and then.) It’s just a lot of trouble for not a whole lot of return.

But I was doing some quick math in my head based on Tomas’s success. If he could get 57 cents from just having 20 views of a couple of videos . . .

I’m in the wrong business.

So I went into my adsense account to check and see what these earnings were coming from. And it turns out . . . he’s actually made 57 cents (assuming YouTube’s estimates end up being accurate. Maybe they overinflate them? Time will tell. But for now, I’ve delved into some different articles online to find out more about this mysterious YouTube ad money.

And of course, the bottom line seems to be the same bottom line that comes up everywhere: there are a few outliers, but by and large you don’t end up making a whole ton of money through ads on YouTube. Or, more accurately stated, not enough to live on.

All of this research ran into a different train of thought I’ve been having. A friend mentioned on a podcast the other day how frustrating it could be to have people congratulate him on “living the dream,” when in reality, he didn’t feel like he was in much of a dream at all.  (I might be misinterpreting what he said. Sorry if so, but it serves as a good intro into my own train of thought.)

I see the same thing happen with writing and publishing. To someone who isn’t published, getting published is the dream. Once you make it there, then it all becomes smooth sailing. To people who are published, getting read is the dream. What does it matter if you are published if no one reads your book?

The problem is that “the dream” ends up being pretty tenuous. I think for most people (people who write, at least) the dream is being able to wake up each morning, write in their pajamas, and answer fan mail in the afternoon if they’re feeling up to it. In other words, the dream is the popular perception of an author’s life. It’s the way it’s portrayed in movies.

But my experience has been that the dream doesn’t exist. (Hate to be all stompy on it, but there you have it.) No matter what you go into, in the end, it involves work to make money. The trick (if there is a trick) is to get paid to do something you like to do anyway. Even then, there will be times when you don’t particularly want to do that thing, whatever it is. And there will be aspects to that thing that you don’t particularly enjoy, but you have to do them anyway in order to be able to keep doing the things you do enjoy.

Unless the dream is being independently wealthy and getting money for doing nothing. In that case, it looks like you have to keep playing the lottery or else inherit money.

I’m good friends with a very successful writer. Million dollar contracts level of success. And I’ve seen firsthand how hard he works. Yes, I suppose he could back off some now that he’s got it made, but that’s the exact point I’m trying to make: he “has it made” because he loves working hard at writing. It’s who he is. He wouldn’t want to back off, because he’d be writing even if he didn’t get paid to do it.

So I guess when it comes to my son’s dreams of YouTube success, the advice is the same: love doing it for the process. That doesn’t guarantee you’ll ever be paid enough to do just that one thing for the rest of your life. (Or be able to just stop needing to worry about money ever), but it will hopefully help you avoid running after a dream that ends up being nothing more than a mirage once you get there.

And on that cheery note, why not subscribe to a twelve-year-old’s YouTube channel? He’d love a few likes . . . Here’s his latest video:

BYU, Independence, and Its Season So Far

No one can say BYU hasn’t had an interesting season so far. 4 losses by a combined 8 points. If you need a team to go out there and have a really close game with just about anyone in the country, call us up. If you’re looking for that team to actually win the game, however . . .

You might want to call someone else.

That said, when I take a look back at the season, 8 games in, I can’t be too disappointed. (Well, I can. But I can try not to be, okay?) A few takeaways:

Our starting quarterback is definitely still a few steps slow from all his injuries over the year. Taysom just isn’t quite what he was, and his accuracy has left some to be desired too. (Not all of it is on Taysom. Many times he gets the ball to the receivers, and they just drop it.) Why haven’t they turned to Tanner? I assume because Taysom’s mobility (even limited somewhat) adds one extra wrinkle. A wrinkle that our offense desperately needs. I really don’t think they would have stuck with Taysom out of loyalty.
In last night’s game (a game we had no business being within 1 point of winning, let’s be clear), we still managed to hang in there somehow, and that was without our star running back. Put Williams in, and you might well have a different outcome.
I know a lot has been said about independence and the Big 12. My take? The Big 12 just doesn’t seem long for this world. They’re too disorganized and too full of squabbling for them to last. I don’t know if super conferences will pick BYU up when they form. I’d like to think so, but who knows. What I do know is that as a Cougar fan living in Maine, I’ve loved independence. The team comes close enough for me to go see them in person now and then. I can watch all the games live (and on replay even). We get the exposure we really wanted. (Though these 10:15 games are killing me. Killing me!)
Really, the only thing I’d like to see change would be to somehow carve out a bowl agreement where we get to go to a nicer bowl based on performance. That would be the one thing we’d need to be able to keep playing for a goal as the season goes on. With no conference championship or bowl to play for, it can feel like as soon as we have one loss, what’s the point of playing anymore.
That said, week after week this year, we’ve had a series of games that have been thrilling to watch against opponents who aren’t Powderpuff U. Sure, it would be great to be winning more of them, but I can’t find fault with the schedule. (Though I don’t ever need to think about going to home games, so that takes away a complaint from me that I know fans in Utah have.)
This is the first year with a new coaching staff and a new offensive and defensive scheme. I know heading into the season all the fans were dreaming of having it all, but this kind of thing takes time. To go 4-4 with our schedule while making all those changes at once? I think that’s commendable, personally. I have great hopes for the future.
I like a coach who believes in his team and has confidence. Going for it on 4th and 19 from 9 yards into our end zone? Maybe a bit much, yes? Though I guess it all worked out for them, so what do I know?

Anyway. Now we get a bye week and we finally start playing a bit smoother of a schedule. I’m hoping our team can get healed up and that we can start getting good practice for our coming years. I think BYU’s future is bright, and that makes me very happy.

Go Cougars!

A Non-Political Post

I already blew through my allowance for political posts yesterday, so I’m not going to write a response to the debate from last night. Yes, I watched it. But writing another response? What would I say? I mean, I guess I’d start out by saying I thought Trump did a pretty decent job for once. At first. It was like he actually had a plan and was going to stick to it. And then he said “bad hombres,” and that little phrase was like a drop of blood in the water. A Trump’s gonna Trump, and he remembered what it felt like.

Poof! Like the sharks in Finding Nemo, his eyes went all black, and the teeth came out. All the preparation began to evaporate on him. Next thing you know, he’s up there blaming Clinton for the fact that he hadn’t paid any federal income tax. (I’m surprised he didn’t use this same argument against the women who have accused him of sexually assaulting them. “They weren’t wearing a bear trap underneath their skirt, so I figured it was okay for me to put my hand up there.”) And then he’s clamoring about how he’s not going to respect the outcome of the election because it’s rigged! Rigged, I tell you! And as if that wasn’t enough, he decided to throw in a “nasty woman” comment for free. (This was like a Trump infomercial at the end. But wait! There’s more!)

If I were a Trump supporter, I was soaring for the first bit yesterday. Finally! He’s not going to stick his foot in his mouth up to his ankle! But Trump? Trump heard his supporters hopes, and he said, “Foot in my mouth up to my ankle? Challenge accepted!” And promptly shoved it in up to his kneecap. I gotta admit: he’s perfected that foot eating routine into an artform. So instead of talking about things that might actually appeal to the general populace, his defenders are stuck trying to do mental gymnastics to justify why their candidate isn’t a complete and utter moron.

Good luck with that.

The craziest thing to me is that all Trump had to do with that little question about accepting the results of the election was to smile and nod his head and say “of course I will.” It was a gimme question. And to all the people crying “Gore in 2000!” over and over, get real. If Trump had said “Yes, I’ll stand by the outcome,” and then the outcome ended up being within the boundaries of legal recounts, he’d still be able to waffle then. And much as I would hope he’d still lose, I’d have to say he deserved his recount. But you don’t say “I’ll keep you in suspense” when asked the question in a nationally televised debate.

Oh, wait.

I said I wasn’t going to write a political post. Ahem.

Sorry about that.

I guess I lied.

Look! A puppy!

Why I’m Not Scared of Hillary Clinton

With all the posting I’ve done about how much I loathe Donald Trump, I haven’t said much about the flip side of that coin. There’s certainly no lack of articles out there written to persuade everyone that Hillary Clinton is about as evil and corrupt as you can get. I’ve heard both sides use the “Lesser of two evils” argument to support why they’re voting for Trump or Clinton.

I disagree with that assessment. I don’t think this is a choice between two evil candidates, mainly because I reserve “evil” for special circumstances. And yes, I’d say that Trump qualifies as evil. Why? Because he actively espouses things I believe are evil. By his actions and his speech, he is actively making this country a worse place to live. I don’t need to listen to pundits tell me why what he’s saying is bad. All I have to do is listen to the words coming out of his mouth.

And that’s the big difference between Trump and Clinton. All the arguments I’ve heard about Clinton come down to reading between the lines. If you believe everything you read on Breitbart, then Clinton is a non-stop lying politician who’s done nothing but terrible things her whole time in office. But let’s be honest, folks. That’s standard operating procedure when it comes to today’s politics. Pro-Republicans paint Democrats as terrible people. Pro-Democrats do the same thing to Republicans.

Back in the 2012 election, I saw it happen firsthand with Romney. I’ve met Mitt Romney. He’s a friend of the family. I heard all the stores all the Democrats were spouting off about him, and I knew how off base they were. Romney had his binders of women, and Clinton has her basket of deplorables. For an opposing view of what Clinton’s “really like,” take a gander at this article.

Or shift this over to religion. I’ve heard any number of claims about Mormons. What we believe. How we act. What sinister things our leaders are up to. And once again, I personally know how worthless those claims are. Not just because I’m personally a Mormon, but more than that, I’m two degrees of separation from the highest ranks of church leadership. I don’t need to listen to some kook in a tinfoil hat tell me what church leaders believe or do behind closed doors. I can find that out for myself.

When it comes to normal politics, I’m much more interested in the policies people are supporting than what their opponents are claiming they’ve been up to. All the conspiracies and name calling is just fluff to distract from what actually matters.

“But wait!” You say. “If policies are all that matters, then why not just look at the policies Trump is for?”

Ah, but remember that disclaimer: “when it comes to normal politics.” Trump is very much not normal. I don’t believe he’s a real conservative for a moment, for one thing. I think he’s saying whatever he can to get as much attention as he can. And I based that wholly on what he actually says and does. I listen to him at rallies. I see how he treats people. I listen to him during debates and see his demeanor.

This isn’t a lesser of two evils choice. This is a choice between evil and a politician. They’re not the same thing, no matter what people desperate to stop Clinton from getting elected would have you believe.

But there are third party candidates!

Yes. Yes, there are. And I’m convinced the only reason we haven’t heard all the slimy terrible things those third party candidates have supposedly done is because the people with money haven’t felt like “exposing” them. They’re not “thoroughly vetted” yet. But might I turn your attention to this video? (Warning: language)

There are no perfect candidates. We choose from the options available to us. I cannot choose Trump. But don’t tell me Clinton is just as bad or worse. Or at least, if you’re going to tell me that, please give me some Koolaid so I can at least have a nice glass of sugary refreshment while you’re wasting my time.

What it comes down to is this: if you’ve personally had dealings with Hillary Clinton, or you can point me to speeches where she’s said awful, horrible things, then we can start to have a conversation about just how terrible she is. But if your sources are all second or third or fourth hand accounts, or news articles written to sell papers or attract eyeballs in today’s partisan environment, then I’m not going to give it the same sort of attention I give to original sources. This is Research 101, people. We teach it at the freshman level in college.

It’s even more glaring to me as an independent when the people saying all the bad things about Hillary are the same people who have been hollering about how terrible Obama’s been for the past 8 years. I don’t think the man’s been perfect, but I do think he’s done a good job as president.

And with that gallon or two of gasoline successfully poured on the fire, I’ll now head off to continue my regularly scheduled Wednesday activities.

A Spoilerific Luke Cage Review

Denisa and I finished Luke Cage over the weekend, and I’ve been waiting to write a review until I was through with the season. Be aware that I will very much be going into spoilers, so steer clear if you don’t want to know how things end.

I enjoyed the show, but it’s probably my least favorite of the Netflix/Marvel shows thus far. (My favorite, for the record, is Jessica Jones, followed by Daredevil 2, then Daredevil, and then Luke Cage.) Cage has a lot of good things going for it. The hero characters are well done. Cage is very relatable, and I really liked how they incorporated his superpowers. (It’s interesting how they could get away with him being so public about them, using the very public existence of the Avengers to explain it.) The soundtrack was great, and it gave the whole series a nice vibe throughout. I really enjoyed the way the show explored the concept of a “Black man in a hoodie” as superhero. That was very well done. And it had a ton of appearances by vets of The Wire, so how could I not like that too?

But it wasn’t as good in some other areas. Plot was pretty weak in this season. The argument of “Luke Cage is dangerous. He made it so the police started beating up citizens. The answer to this is to give the police better bullets” was beyond weak. Especially in light of the fact that we’ve had very public instances of police brutality, and I don’t remember one single example of anyone saying “and this is why the police need more weapons” bring brought up as a solution. It didn’t make any sense at all. Likewise the motivations behind Diamondback. They never really crystallized for me, and they came across as lame the whole time.

Which leads me to my second critique. The villains, other than Cottonmouth, were lame. Diamondback especially was kind of pathetic. His whole motivation? Daddy liked you better. That’s just weak justification for becoming a terrible human being. (Though it’s not like Trump has had any better justification, so maybe I’m being too harsh?) He just came across as whiny the whole time.

Same with Mariah. She was better, but not a whole lot better. She just wanted extra power, and somehow she was able to game the system to get it. But again, the way she gamed the system made no sense. I just had a hard time accepting the fact that she’d be able to get away with everything she got away with.

On the other hand, I liked the fact that Cage was arrested in the end. That made perfect sense to me, even though it was upsetting. He’s a black man with a prison record. How does he not go back to jail in our society, guilty or not? (And the set up for Daredevil becoming his lawyer is great, too.)

What else? Shades was . . . okay. Kind of vanilla bad guy (but he’s got sunglasses! So he’s unique!) Cottonmouth I liked a lot as a villain, and I wish he’d stayed around longer. I liked the musician/gangster flair he had going. Claire was fine. Misty was good at first, and then progressively more annoying as she kept screwing things up. (The writers needed to decide if she was competent or not. They kept waffling on that.)

I’m totally on board for a second season, and I really did enjoy this one, but in the end I found too many areas lacking for me to really give it a 5/5. Maybe not even a 4/5. It felt forced too often, and that’s not a good thing. It’s probably around a 3.5 for me. I didn’t give any single episode more than a 4/5, after all. (Of the thirteen, 8 were 4s and 5 were 3s.)

What did you think?

I’m a Real Author!

Yes, I know I have two books professionally published. I’ve had reviews of my books appear in real review publications. I’ve had readings. I’ve presented at conferences. I’ve done book signings. I’ve won awards for my books. But I’ll be honest: yesterday was the first day I’ve felt like a real, honest-to-goodness author.

What happened? I walked into 2 different Barnes & Noble bookstores (any bookstores would have done, but they would have had to be stores that didn’t know I was coming ahead of time) at random, went to the shelves, found my book, and went to the store clerks and offered to sign the copies they had. (There were 8 in the first store (in Portsmouth, NH), across three different areas, and 11 in the second in 2 areas (in Burlington, MA).) In both cases, the staff were really excited to meet me and asked if I’d like to come back to do a real signing. (I explained I was just passing through, and politely declined.)

So why does that make me feel like a real author when all the other things didn’t? I think it’s because it’s tangible. It’s something I didn’t have any real hand in creating. Just knowing that my book is out there across stores in the country, prominently displayed . . . it’s a really nice feeling.

I think some of it is also due to the fact that it’s something I tried to experience with VODNIK and never really got to. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. When VODNIK came out, I went into a handful of stores at random over the course of several months as I traveled from place to place. Each time, I had a small nugget of hope that maybe my book would be there. Each time, I was disappointed.

So having the experience now was all the sweeter.

Anyway. Just wanted to share the feeling with you all. My hope is to hit the Danvers, MA and maybe even the Saugus, MA stores this evening, because dinner is for the weak. (And seeing my book in print is kind of contagious.)

If you live around one of those Barnes & Noble stores, stop in and grab a signed copy of THE MEMORY THIEF today! And thanks for all the pictures and reports of book sightings. Keep them coming!

Does Anyone Else Do This?

This is an awesome book. You should read it.

We all live in our own realities, and the way we see things is just the way things are. I get that. But I have to wonder sometimes if the way I’m wired is different than other people. I don’t mean how I like the Yankees while everyone around me somehow has been taken in by the Red Sox. That’s just a matter of taste.

No, I mean the basic fundamentals of how our brains work.

The case in point today? Terrible thoughts of “what might happen.” I’ll be having a perfectly lovely time doing just about anything, and into my head will pop “Yes, you’re having fun doing this. But ________ might happen in the next two minutes.” Like this morning. I’m sitting there in my car, driving to my library meeting today and listening to music and having a pleasant ride, and then it hits me: I could get into a car wreck in the next minute. Or one of my children could die in an accident. Or my house could burn down.

It’s a bundle of negativity that comes out of nowhere, and it can’t help but put a damper on my feelings.

It’s not like that’s an isolated incident, either. It happens probably once or twice a day. Things are great, and then there’s this burst of “What if?” I’ve learned to pretty much live with it. Just accept the thought and then move past it. But as I was driving today, I wondered if other people have the same downer thoughts so regularly.

My gut says that they don’t. That there’s probably a continuum between never having those kinds of thoughts and always having them, and that the more you have them, the harder it is to just move past them. But it’s not like you can crawl inside someone else’s brain and really see what things are like.

I wonder how surprised we would be if we ever could really do that. Truly see how someone else thinks and what sort of struggles they go through. I imagine we’d be very surprised by both the things they don’t have any issues with (which we personally struggle with) and the things they can’t seem to overcome (which don’t make us bat an eye.)

CS Lewis has a wonderful quote on this that I think I’ll finish up with (from Mere Christianity):

If you are a nice person–if virtue comes easily to you–beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God’s gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as yours are above those of a chimpanzee.

But if you are a poor creature – poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels – saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion – nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends – do not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) He will fling it on the scrap-heap and give you a new one. And then you may astonish us all, not least yourself. For you have learned your driving in a hard school. (Some of the last will be first and some of the first will be last).

Take It from a Librarian: Sources Matter

Image from Reasonist Productions

I’m a big Facebook user. It’s where the bulk of the readers of my blog come from, and I love being able to stay connected with my friends across the country and the world. Of course, it comes with its problems. The biggest one (other than the tremendous time sink it can be) might be the fact that Facebook forces me to see what a lot of my friends and acquaintances really think.

It’s much easier to think the best about people when you’re not faced with a torrent of memes and political posts.

“But Bryce,” you say. “Don’t you do the same thing? You’re posting about politics and other current events all the time on this blog.”

True. But I’d like to think I’m pretty consistent in my views. Anyone who meets me in person will see and hear the same things I’m saying and thinking aloud on this blog. And I also liberally hide people from my Facebook feed. (Something I encourage everyone to do.) If you’re not someone I know well, I’ll happily add you as a friend, but that doesn’t mean you get a spot in my feed.

However, even with all the feed gardening, I still get a slew of posts by well intentioned people who, frankly, don’t know what they’re memeing about. In a way, I can’t blame them. Social media has made it all too easy to share information. You’d think I’d applaud that, as a librarian. Yay information!

But a whole ton of what gets shared isn’t true. In some cases, this is accidental. A quote is misattributed, and then that’s passed forward from share to share. In other cases, lies are presented as fact. That’s clearly a problem, but even the misattribution of quotes is an issue for me.

When we start playing loose with facts (including who said what when), then it becomes that much easier to play loose with bigger facts. We shift focus from the source and  look only at the content. “It’s the idea that matters,” I hear. “What does it matter who said it?”

It matters so much! Not just who said it, but who they were speaking to. The easy example is anything written in the Onion. Some people don’t realize that’s satire, and it upsets them when that sails past them. But it’s more complicated than that, of course.

I personally don’t believe pretty much anything I read on partisan new sites. And I don’t just mean Fox or MSNBC. (If you follow those sites, fine. But please pair them with some opposing viewpoints.) N0, I mean sites like Drudge or Breitbart. Sites that unapologetically skew the news to present a worldview that just isn’t based in reality.

Information isn’t all of equal value. It needs to be sifted and analyzed. It needs to be validated. Facts are very different than opinions, no matter how much one might wish it were otherwise. Base your worldview on opinions, and you can be in for a rude awakening. Forming an opinion based on fact is fine, but opinions based on opinions gets you into dangerous territory.

We need to pay attention to the small things, because they lead to big things. A personal example: a few years ago, I shared something that basically talked about how frivolous law suits were  driving up the cost of health care. I didn’t need to cite anything: everyone knew this was fact. At least, that’s what I believed. But then a lawyer friend spoke up and said that just wasn’t true.

I leapt into action to prove him wrong. I’m a trained librarian, dagnabbit. I can find information with the best of them. Except when I went looking, I discovered . . . he was right. The actual studies done said exactly the opposite of what I had been passing on as fact.

So I admitted I was wrong and changed my mind. Popular opinion doesn’t trump fact. (No pun intended, but it’s a convenient turn of phrase.)

These days, you can find something online that will confirm just about any previously held belief you have. Anything you want to believe, someone will be out there cheering you on and telling you how right you are. How do you tell if what you’re reading is reliable information or just a bunch of fluff?

Use the CRAAP test. It’s a series of questions librarians promote to help people evaluate information.

C is for currency. When did the information come out? Has it been outdated by new findings?

R is for relevance. Does the information actually relate the issue at hand?

A is for authority. Who provided the information, and why are they someone to be believed? What is their background and education, and do they have any ulterior motives?

A is for accuracy. Is the information corroborated by other sources? If five sources say one thing, and the sixth says the opposite, that doesn’t mean you can ignore the five. You  have to figure out why it’s saying something different and if it can be believed.

P is for purpose. Why was the information created? Did someone pay for it to be publicized? If so, who? Is it designed to persuade? Is it unbiased?

The thing is, applying this test to everything can be a real pain in the rear. It’s so much easier to just share the post or the meme and forget about it. But if you keep doing that, you can end up having a skewed understanding of what’s actually happening. You end up living in an echo chamber where everything agrees with what you’ve always believed.

Here’s a pro-tip for you: if you haven’t ever had some basic assumptions proved wrong, I don’t think you’re actually thinking that much about the world around you. But that’s just me.

For now, I’d just be a whole lot happier if everyone paid attention to the kind of information they were consuming. Is that too much to ask?

Autumn is Awesome

I know there’s a lot of people out there who love summer. Traditionally, it makes sense. There’s a lot you can do outside. There’s fresh produce. There’s the wonderful summer vacation as a kid. Personally, however, summer has always been my least favorite season. It’s growing on me some as I get older, but summer involves a lot of heat and bugs, and I’m not a fan of either. (Maine is lovely when it comes to heat, at least. It rarely gets too hot here. Bugs . . . not so much.)

So I’m always really happy to hit September each year. It means I’ve gotten through another summer and I have nothing but fun to look forward to for the next nine months or so. For years, winter has been my favorite season, and I still love it, but as I think about it, autumn might win out in my mind these days.

Autumn is the Friday of the seasons for me. It’s the season that starts off the weekend. Summer is Monday through Thursday. The work week. But Autumn means that the fun is just beginning.

The leaves change color and fall to the ground. I love the smell of rotting leaves, though I know that probably sounds crazy. The nights are chilly, and it gets cold enough to start lighting fires in the wood stove now and then. Football season gets going. You’ve got the best streak of holidays just gearing up: Halloween into Thanksgiving into Christmas into New Years into Groundhog Day.

Autumn is full of delicious foods. Pumpkins and apples. Cinnamon. The kids go back to school, which means I don’t feel as sorry for myself heading into work each day. The grass even stops growing, so you don’t need to mow it anymore.

Really, it’s hard to think of anything wrong with Autumn. Mice move in from outside, so you can hear some scurrying in the walls. It’s the time of year I traditionally do a lot of the home renovation projects, so we spend a lot of money in September and October?

Winter’s still the best, with its heavy snows and blazing wood stoves, but Autumn earns top marks for its place in the yearly cycle.