11 things about fall

As we hurtle into fall, I feel bad for one big reason. I love that in summer you can dress easily and leave the house easily and get in your car easily and drive easily.

Not for nothing did Gershwin write that in summertime, the living is easy!

However I will not miss the rudeness of summer. The barrage of boom cars and motorcycles. I cannot hear my Leonard Pennario!

Do listen to that link if you can. It is Pennario playing an autumnal waltz. It is beautiful. No one plays that waltz the way he does.

Pride goeth before a fall, as the old adage goes. Here are 10 things I look forward to every year about this time.

1. Not feeling as if I am the only person in the world who has to work. This is a biggie because I come from a family of teachers.

2. Drinking full-bodied red wine. Well, who am I kidding, I drink red wine anyway even in the dog days of summer. But now I can drink it without feeling like a freak.

3. Going to the Broadway Market in pursuit of rabbit and pheasant and going to the Clinton-Bailey Market for those dusky, blue, beautiful Concord grapes, pictured above.

4. More trips at dawn to James Desiderio's, this time for grape juice for the wine my friend Gary and I make under our private label.

5. Sleeping. No getting up in the middle of the night to plug in the fan because Howard is this blast furnace.

6. Cider.

7. I can let the garden go to pot. Well, who am I kidding, the garden went to pot early on in the summer, but now I do not have to feel guilty about it.

8. Christmas music. I crack it out early. And Advent. I love Advent.

9. October when we share stories of the supernatural including tales of Peter Piccolo.

10. Not having to hear my neighbors' radio! Here it is not even 9 a.m. and it is already kicking in. Forget that!

11. Eastern Standard Time when you gain that needed hour. And that wild time of the year when it is dark at 4:30 p.m.

Wait, I was going to stop at 10.

This game is pretty easy to play!