We’ve pretty much been out of pocket for a few weeks and woke up Monday to a tad bit cooler weather and the calendar reading “first day of fall.” About that same time the weatherman proclaimed that it was going to be 90-something degrees so it seemed to me that one or the other might be wrong. They were both right and October is just around the corner.
My mom is in the hospital with Cryptococcus Meningitis — has been for some time now — so we’ve been doing a whole bunch of back and forth and forth and back between here and good ole St. Dominics on the corner of Lakeland Drive and I-55 in Jackson. I suppose when traveling like that the mind tends to focus on the problems and even though there are plenty signs of the season along the roadside we tend to zip on by and never take a gander.
There is a spot up on Highway 481 between Morton and the Ross Barnett Reservoir that I’ve been by I don’t know how many times since the first of the month, but it was not until last Friday that I noticed the vast cotton fields already defoliated and ready for harvest. Don’t know how I missed that since I lived in the Delta for about 15 years and used to always take note of the cotton fields this time of year. That beautiful Mississippi snow!
I don’t know whether soybeans have been harvested or if the dry weather is taking its toll on those fields but they look dry and bare too. Hope they are okay since the powers that be just announced a soybean trade deal with Mississippi and Taiwan and that has to be good news for the farmers.
I noticed another sign on Sunday night when my dad and I arrived at his house in Newton after another long day sitting in the hospital room. He is 86 and no longer drives out of town, so I’m staying with him at nights this week and he comes to the office in the mornings with me where my brother picks him up and drives him to Jackson and we reverse in the evenings.
Anyway, Sunday night the battery in Dad’s car was dead, having not been cranked in several weeks, and we were going to see if it would charge up. He raised the hood and pecan tree leaves went flying everywhere and later I noticed the distinct crunch of acorns beneath my feet as I cooked us a hamburger on the patio grill.
Yep, there are signs of fall everywhere. Bright orange pumpkins are in the stores along with those colorful little gourds that folks use to decorate their tabletops for the season.
Yellow, and white, and purple mums are all around and hay bales and scarecrows are popping up in yards. I hear college football fans are filling the stadiums, but since we’ve missed the last two games at MSU, whether the stands were filled or not I am not certain. Judging from the temperature outside, though, I think probably not.
All we need to make fall complete is the weatherman hitting the nail on the head with some cool nights, crisp mornings and perhaps a high somewhere around 72. And, of course, we’d like mom back at home where the dogs are getting lonely, the cat is on the prowl for a chipmunk or two, and a single orange pumpkin is on the patio table awaiting her arrival. Unfortunately we know that is at least two or three weeks away — meningitis is cruel to the elderly — but fortunately we know that time “is” on the way.
Mom and dad spent their 65th wedding anniversary on the sixth floor of St. Dominics — not exactly the room with a view one would choose for their 65th wedding anniversary — and we’ve claimed a spot on all the other floors, except the third floor, en route from ER, to a room, to the Critical Care Unit, and back to a room during our stay. She’ll celebrate her 83rd birthday just over a month from now. I hope and pray she is not still in that hospital, but if it so happens that she is, perhaps we’ll roll her down the hall of floor number three just to see what they have to offer there!
