7 Things: Best Things About Fall

September 23rd through 29th, the first full week of Fall 2012. How welcome it was. Even if it did come with remnants of summer heat, which are clinging with little devil claws to the start of October.

Fall is my favorite season. Hands down. I get the impression that it is the favorite season of a lot of people, which I find interesting. After all, spring and autumn have similar moderate temperatures, just in reverse, and both offer relief from more extreme temperatures. The trees and plants change both spring and fall, also kinda in reverse. Animals do interesting things, though some would say more interesting in spring with new babies and such.

Yet, people seem to favor autumn, the time of year when things start to die, over spring, the time of year when things come to life.

Examine that one, Socrates.

Of course, when you’re not a kid being forced back into the dull prison that is the American education system each year,  fall does have its share of perks.

7 – The Holidays

If I could pick one aspect of fall that gives it an edge over spring for most people, it would be the holidays. I trust the impending-natureness of the major holidays as fall sets in gives people a warm fuzzy feeling they don’t get from impending Memorial Days and Independence Days. Holidays don’t have the meaning for me that they used to, sadly, but I do enjoy watching people decorate the world and being nicer to each other for a while.

6 – The Drinks

The weather was too hot and the date was too early, but the first pumpkin spice latte occurred in early September. And I know just where this leads every year. To Gingerbread lattes. By the time fall/winter comes to a close, I will imbibe many a calorie-packed drink.

Despite the fabulousness that is a fall or winter latte flavor, though, nothing tops my ultimate fall drink.

Autumn is apple cider time. And apple cider time is my time.

5 – The Food

If we’re going by produce alone, summer is, of course, my favorite time of year. Being able to walk into a grocery store and get most any fruit or vegetable I crave is an earthbound heaven I think we can all appreciate.

Fall, though, is that time of year when homemade soups tastes better, sandwiches get thicker, and making casseroles and baked goods changes the temperature in your home in a comfortable way instead of an unpleasant way.

Plus, apples, pears, butternut squash and pumpkin? That’s a beautiful array.

4 – The Weather

The temperatures are similar. Really they are. But there is just something about there being “a chill in the air” that feels more special than “it’s starting to warm up.”

3 – The Clothes

If I could pick one aspect of fall that gives it an edge over spring for one person – me – it would be the clothes. I like cords and boots and my leather jacket. I like scarves and gloves and my orange hat. I like a lot of hats, actually. And I like when other people wear them too.

When you’re walking through the city in late fall or early winter, and the streets are full of women in long wool jackets and scarves with pink-flushed cheeks, and men in suits and leather and knit caps, it makes for an attractive landscape.

Of course, that may just be in comparison to the flesh-fest and eyesore that is summer, the tackiest time of year.

2 – TV

I enjoy the TV I enjoy. I like when it comes back in fall and I know that I have it for the next several months. It’s a simple pleasure, but I’ll take it.

1 – Travel

There are few times of year when travel doesn’t satisfy, but fall travel is special. The landscape is changing, the skies are graying, and, after the clusterfuck of one-time-a-year vacationers and construction that is summer, the roads feel vacant and free. When you stop for a restroom or food or a roadside attraction, it’s just the right temperature to get out of the car without complaint, and, when you get to where you’re going, you can walk around in a sweater sans coat, not too cold and not too hot.

Even buskers seem to play with more enthusiasm.

In a week and a half, I’ll get a fall weekend in New York. There will be cider and lattes and walking through the park and, if all goes as planned, at least two plays to go along with our definite concert. And I have faith that this will be the greatest Linda Eder concert I’ve seen since the first Linda Eder concert I saw over a decade ago. And, since that first concert is the only concert of hers at which I’ve seen her sing THIS song live, for some inexplicable reason, I do hope she sings THIS song –