NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Did you grab a jacket this morning? I sure enough hauled mine out of the closet, and it felt real good over the chill bumps! I guess it is the truth. Autumn does follow summer and it comes fast after you get as old as my close relative! Oops, I meant to say as old as me!

I am glad for some of the relief of this past season. And you know it won’t be long before we will lament the cold and the mud. I am gonna try to keep it to a low roar this year. My preacher has sorta been talking about us all being so ungrateful, and I’m afraid he has been listening to my whining.

We have all kinds and descriptions of items on the front yard to hail the coming of fall. We’ve got our own scarecrow wearing some of my pants and one of my close relative’s old squashedhats. We have punkin’s galore - no pies, just pumpkins. There are colored leaves strung around on garlands, hanging in the way if you want to look out from the chairs on the porch. Several big pots of flowers are sitting at strategic places, killing the grass underneath, and I will be forced to replant there next spring.

I can remember the house smelling of cinnamon and apples as the pies were baked back in the olden days. Now we have candles that produce the odor but no products. We once had hot cider on the porch in the evenings, now we are lucky to get a cup at all; it contains too much sugar for general consumption. We used to have a warm blanket to throw over our legs when the evenings got too chilly for comfort on the porch.Now we are instructed to get in the house if we are uncomfortable, as dragging quilts around outdoors wears them out and causes washing. I am not whining, just stating facts.

I have tried to stay in the pasture as much as possible or head for town when she ain’t looking! Seems like I don’t understand all the thoughts running rampant around headquarters this week. If I have ever learned anything in this lifetime, it is to scram when the getting is good!

It is my opinion, and everybody has one, if I intend to get along any better than I have been, and I do, then the weather isn’t the only thing that needs to change. I am gonna have to take some medicine or do something drastic to get myself in a better humor, and that will make life much more pleasant.

Take my advice, fellers, being cranky is right next to whining, and we sure don’t want to do that!

Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 10/10/2012