The furnace came on before dawn this morning for the first time this Fall. Of course Fall has only been here a scant 19 hours, but it was interesting to me that on the first full day of Autumn it got cold enough the night before to kick the heat on.
Here in the Northwest, the advent of Fall is of some note. Not in and of itself, but for its many ramifications. Most of us here have a furnace/heat pump combo which allows you to set your thermostat at high and low end limits. If it's too cold, the furnace comes on; if it's too hot the heat pump and related airconditioning kick in. Since late March or April the heat pump has had its share of use, as we've had perfect summer weather -- which still requires air conditioning with all our sun-exposed windows (ponder this: why does a HEAT pump provide air conditioning? Why do you slow down for a speed bump? Etc., etc. ad nauseum). Never once to my recollection has the furnace come on since late Spring. But now this rather innocuous event heralds many anticipatory occurrences.
The days will become increasingly more cloudy (hopefully not for some time yet so we can get some salmon fishing in), and there will be less and less sun breaks among the stretches of cloudy days. Rainy days will increase and will last several days in a row -- hopefully not as much as the 100+ straight days of rain back in 2003. We'll also have to pull out the long pants, sweaters and sweat shirts to help combat the season's chill. Though I was a Californian for more than 35 years and learned to enjoy the sunshine as a steady friend, I am now reprogramming the psyche to learn to accept -- and even enjoy -- the variety of seasonal changes. However, it can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
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