It’s still a couple of

weeks until the first day

of fall but we’re having

a taste of fall weather. A

storm system moved in

Thursday and brought

with it rain and cool

er temperatures. Fall

ing leaves carpet the

front yard and the days

are growing noticeably

shorter.

The grandkids are set

tling into the routine of a

new school year and Alys

sa reports that she really

likes her teacher. Football

season has begun and

good football weather ar

rived just in time.

Lee Radziwill once

wrote that September,

far more than January,

always seems to her to

be the beginning of a

new year. “With the glow

of summer, after enjoy

ing relaxed and carefree

months, most of us are

ready to get back to a dai

ly routine.” She pointed

out that at the start of

September most people’s

spirits are high. It’s a time

of looking forward - settling down again, digging in and getting to work. It’s a time of beginnings for everyone - children and adults.

September is the time when most of us feel renewed enough to have the best intentions about what we would like to accomplish in the months ahead - what we would like to learn, what we would like to achieve.

Over the summer we’ve had the time to reflect on how we could make our days more interesting or what kinds of changes we should be making in our lives.

“Armed with intentions of improvement or change, we should sweep into September like a strong breeze! Full of enthusiasm, happiness and health, we start to accomplish some of the things we’ve thought about doing. Try to make them last as long as the glow of summer,” Radziwill urged.

I stretched out my birthday celebration for quite a while, receiving a trio of belated birthday cards last Tuesday. One especially cute one from my friend in Florida informed me that friends never forget birthdays “but sometimes they remember very, very slowly.”

On Thursday, a thunderstorm moved in about 8 p.m., buffeting the area with high winds and an onslaught of heavy rain.

The power was off when we returned home from a meeting at 9, so we lit a couple of candles and waited about an hour and a half before the lights came on.

We dressed warmly and attended the first high school football game Friday night. We arrived early enough to enjoy a couple of cheeseburgers before the game and proudly watched grandson A. J.

march in for his performance with the band. It wasn’t the prettiest game we’ve seen, but several players made impressive plays and the Lions pulled off a victory.

Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

Opinion, Pages 7 on 09/08/2010