Autumn in Cleveland

So it's clearly autumn in Cleveland now. When the days are bright, they are astounding: azure skies with white clouds rimmed in grey, a cold yellow sunlight that filters blue, Canadian geese trumpeting as they fly in their gigantic V's overhead. The leaves are particularly beautiful this year, due to the lack of rain. The raspberry bush in my garden is still flowering and making fruit, and the arugula is growing contentedly under the clear plastic storage bins I put over it to protect it from freezing.

But when there's cloud cover.... Cleveland is particularly grey November through April. Maybe it's Lake Erie, but there are days that are so dark I have to turn on lights in my house in mid-afternoon (and I have picture windows fully flanking all of my outside walls). Daylight saving time has Clevelanders waking up in the dark, going to work, and going home in the dark. It's a season made for hibernating, but modern life doesn't permit it.

Some winters I get all introspective, but some, I just dig in with my fleece and fuzzy slippers and bear the brunt. My cats, normally self-respective and reliant, suddenly start sleeping cuddled next to me and sitting on my lap for warmth.

I wish I was a "winter person," someone who straps on skates and skis and makes the best of the snow and ice. But I'm really a sun-baby-- only the "explode your head" kind of Mexican June heat bothers me. (And the Mexicans are smart-- they siesta during the hottest parts of the day.) Give me a little beach chair, a sunny day, a good book, and a cold drink and I'm a happy girl. Add a beach and the sound of surf, and I'm ecstatic.

Summers in Cleveland are idyllic. Sunny, warm, cool-at-night, and leafy-green, with a Great Lake nearby if need be. Half of Clevelanders don't have air conditioning; they sleep on their porches and go to the lake shore for respite. This time of year I have to keep reminding myself that half the year here is perfect, which kinda makes up for half the year being dark, frozen and knee-deep in snow.

Kinda.