It
is November and reality cannot be denied – fall is almost over. I love fall,
the season when colorful flowers often last until mid-November, leaves turn
beautiful reds and yellows, and the weather is sunny and warm during the day.
It is perfect weather for gardening (not too hot or too cold), walking (not too
hot or too cold), biking (not too hot or too cold) – you get the idea.
Winter
will soon arrive. In fact, it is almost here. This morning ushered in a mixed
bag of white flurries, light rain and other unnamed stuff pouring from the
skies. It may have been precipitation of some kind or pollution of another
kind.
The
garden begs for attention, wanting to bed down for the winter.
Darkness
descends earlier each evening.
Sweaters
and jeans, dug out of drawers and reclaimed from storage, replace short-sleeved
shirts, capris and sandals.
Mailboxes
– both snail mailbox and e-mail – bulge with ads and catalogs, anticipating
holiday gift purchases.
Tourists are gone. Snowbirds
close up their homes and head south.
A major modification on our
island is an additional indication and sure sign of the changing of the
seasons. The red-yellow-green traffic lights on one of the two main thoroughfares transform, initiating
blinking light season.
The blinking traffic lights
appear on one part of the island. There are four towns here, and two
contiguous towns participate in this annual off-season rite.
The traffic lights blink yellow
24 hours a day now. There are no red-yellow-green changing lights to watch
carefully and consider –
Will the light turn red before I drive through the
intersection? Can I safely make it through?
If I slow down now will the light turn green before I
reach it, avoiding a complete stop?
How many lights can I drive through before I have to
stop?
I can now drive at the same
steady speed, savoring the quiet, peaceful atmosphere characterized by few cars
and fewer pedestrians.
How much gas is
saved not stepping on the brakes every couple of blocks!?
It definitely takes a lot
less time driving steadily down the street, not stopping sporadically. And I
have time to look around and enjoy my serene surroundings.
Then I hit my town and the
red-yellow-green lights begin again.
The local paper printed some
excuse why our town does not adopt the off-season blinking light policy. I did
not understand the reasoning and am sure it was an explanation concocted by a
local politician who did not have a good answer to the question.
So I savor blinking light season
wherever it is for as long as it lasts, sometime mid-spring, when our towns
slowly begin to awaken, stir, intense activity begins again, and a steady
stream of cars and pedestrians demand red-yellow-green traffic signals once
again.
Our weather is much like yours, except we don't have the blinking lights. I am confused enough as it is. And it would drive the commuters (who are all back home after spending summer elsewhere) nuts. Dianne
ReplyDeleteMy sister lives in Florida year round, and she laments the arrival of all the snowbirds, making long lines in all the stores and in the restaurants, and lots of traffic. She looks forward to the summer when everything slows down, just the opposite of your town. Glad you're into blinking light season, though. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have lived in tourist towns most of my life. In Florida it was a winter tourist season, the Ozarks have a summer season. Sadly, neither place ever reaches the blinking light stage. What a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI like fall, too, except that it is inevitably followed by winter. And around where I live we don't even have the silver lining of the blinking yellow lights to ease our way through the cold dark months.
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