So far, the cooler seasons are off to a great start for me, personally. I’ve not only learned that my apartment can get a decent enough cross-breeze if the wind is coming from the right direction, but that just closing the windows is enough for the temperature to start rising inside it, even after the sun has shifted from shining through the windows to just reflecting off the roof. Any day where I’ve felt like my apartment got too cold overnight (the lowest I’ve seen it so far was just under sixty degrees and that was a night it was almost freezing outside), all I have to do is close the windows and it will warm right back up again. My old apartment could not be counted on to ever warm back up and then stay warm throughout the day unless I had the heat running. As a result of all that, I actually had my windows open for over two weeks in a row, adjusting how open they were to control the temperature and enjoying every minute of fresh air I was getting. In fact, the only reason they weren’t open longer is because I left for the weekend to visit a friend and wanted to see what would happen during a relatively chilly weekend if I left all the windows shut and the air off. It worked out pretty well, though it never got quite as warm as I’d hoped it would, so I’ll probably need to run a few more tests to dial in my expectations.
Other than that, it’s been a pretty nice October. Lots of cool, sunny days with enough rain to avoid everything getting super crispy and dry as it all slowly fades for the year. Tons of picturesque foliage on the trees. A good, gradual fall season rather than the abrupt and often late seasonal changes we’ve had over the last couple years [though the days before this post went live included a day in the 80s and 72 hour period where the temperature hovered from 60 to 65 with 100% humidity, so it wasn’t really a “normal” fall after all]. The long-term forecasts are calling for a mild start to the winter season with more biting temperatures showing up towards the ends, but it is nice enough as I’m writing this that I don’t mind. Even if we wind up having a rough month or two in the later half of winter, a few calm, cool months will be great after the stress of the past year. This is my favorite kind of weather, after all. Cool enough at night to need some heavier blankets but warm enough during the day to take off your jacket and get a little extra sunlight when you’re going on your walk. If there was a place that had weather like this every single day of the year, I’d move there without hesitation.
It is very nice weather for a wedding, especially a Halloween one. Two of my friends who have been together for several years now are getting hitched this year and are having a small ceremony on Halloween. They’re going to have a larger celebration some other time. They have not shared their exact plans yet (at least not that I remember), but I imagine it’ll be quite a blowout eventually. I’ve met one half of the family being brought together by this event and I know they love a big party, so I can’t imagine there won’t be one at some point. Hopefully, they’ll have weather just as nice for that event as it looks like they’ll have for their Halloween, costume-heavily-suggested party. I hope it will be a bit on the cooler side [and it will be downright chilly, it turns out], given the costume I’ve been assembling, but I’m sure I’ll be able to make it through at least the ceremony before I might need to take a few articles off and breathe a bit.
Other than that, the only other major event on my calendar is that I’m potentially hosting my siblings and maybe some of their friends/queerplatonic life partners for US Thanksgiving (the exact attendance and location is still TBD, but my place is a solid backup we know we can rely on). I’m excited at the prospect of hosting people for multiple days, since that would mean we’d get to experience the sense of coziness that comes with having a bunch of people packed into a space. I’ll probably need to do a deep clean before then, if I wind up hosting, along with some rearranging of the space to make room for everyone, but I’m looking forward to maybe having people around. It’s always nice to have company and while I’ve hosted a few small things, I’ve not yet hosted a big thing and I love hosting big things. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to convince an entire tabletop roleplaying game campaign I’m running to come for a visit at the same time so we can play in-person since we’re fairly scattered across the US at this point, but I’d love to try. Or host a different large gaming event with a bunch of my friends. I really miss regularly hosting games at my place and it is always in the wintery months that I wish I had that kind of event to look forward to every week. It’s a lot easier in the summer to get out and about and it feels less dire in general when the sun’s out into the evening. I’m really not looking forward to losing the sunlight we’ve got between the approaching winter solistice and the upcoming time shift thanks to the end of daylight saving time.
Talk about stupid things you wish were done and gone… Too bad the legislation that was put forward never got addressed by the useless US government. Sure, we’ve got all the time and money needed to fund a genocide against Palestinians (and, of course, pretend that we’re not doing this) but we can’t even do one little thing that will make a positive material difference in people’s lives that is incredibly uncontroversial. Probably because no one’s going to get any photo ops or sound bites out of legislation to end DST… Before I upset myself any further, I’m going to go outside and enjoy a little bit of sunlight on this beautiful day. I hope your fall is has been pleasant so far, you know, aside from all the horrible things happening in the world. Gotta be able to disengage when you need it and nice sunny afternoons are exactly what I need for moments like that, so I’m glad this fall has been full of them.