I will confess — I have been on vacation.  Those of you following my writings might say, hey, weren’t you just in Spain? 

That, my friends, was not vacation.  That was work.

But the last couple of weeks have been what I call “real vacation”…no true responsibility, no deadlines, no demands greater than walking the dog and doing basic life-maintenance activities such as cooking and laundry.  And in the middle of it all, a week of real vacation enjoying my favorite beach location.

But one of the great things about Washington DC and its weather extremes is this — you certainly know when the seasons change.  And change is definitely in the air…low humidity, temperatures in the 80’s instead of over 100…cool, cool mornings, by DC standards…softer, more gentle weather.  Clearly, fall is on its way. Okay, most places in this world a drop to 80 degrees would not signal the arrival of fall, but it is the quality of the air that is different.  No longer do the nights stay almost as warm as the days–cool, crisp air has replaced steamy, overly-warm evenings.

More than the temperature, however, the arrival of fall is apparent from subtle change in activity level all around me — okay, not so subtle, really.  Those of us with too much education find it difficult to break away from the pull of the academic calendar — for me, these last weeks of summer are filled with planning and meetings and preparations for a year that will start running forward once the twilight hours of Labor Day pass.

Fall.  Concert schedules.  Rehearsal schedules.  Committee meetings. 

Yes, they are all coming.  But first, I plan to savor these last few days as the weather, and I, slip slowly into our fall patterns.