The First Day of WHAT?!?!?!!!!

No colorful leaves?  No problem!

Halftime, as I call the big gap between the January to May part of the cruise ship season & the late October through December part, is winding down at breakneck speed. My desk calendar at my other job just had the audacity to announce that today is AUTUMN?!

Fall on the island is more of a slip than a Fall.  The leaves that change hue or drop are mostly limited to one color, two species (coppery mahogany & red dog almond) & happen in late Spring/early summer instead of Fall. 

West Indian Mahogany trees have small leaves that turn brown & flutter down in huge drifts...that are as shiny as a pile of pennies, & as slick as a slip 'n slide. The lovely Mrs Fruit who sells her produce under the mahoganies in front of the Kingshill Post Office discovered the latter characteristic as I glanced over one day, saw her hit a patch of leaves & land flat of her arse.  As I helped pull her to her feet & settle her bucket hat back on her head, we were grateful the leaves were drifted deeply enough to break her fall & ensure she would live to play her ukulele under those trees as she does most afternoons.  

Autumnal stony pup

To render St Croix even more seasonally disoriented,  long & golden rays of light usually reserved for Autumn in the states also appear here in late spring, with the polarity causing objects to stand in relief. I catch myself smiling about thoughts of cooler air & Halloween/ Thanksgiving/Christmas...only to wake with a start when I realize it is about to be summer instead of Fall, & Hurricanes rather than Chanukah are upon us. 

I should have been making these for months now!

So here it is, the cusp of Autumn, & I  just can't make myself believe it...except three people have asked me about Christmas ornaments in the last two days...& Williams Sonoma is pelting me with images of pumpkin-shaped marshmallows...and I'm sharing pics of rubber snake-enhanced Halloween wreaths with a friend...and my summer to-do list is SO NOT 'TO-DONE.'

But I'm done--done fretting over what eluded the 'finished' slash of my pen or the peck of a delete key--done measuring the 'success' or 'failure' of a given day by a litany of tasks remaining to be completed & thus robbing me of zzzzs, done cramming quantity instead of quality into every 24 hours.  

Man.  I talk a great game; don't I? I almost believe me.