(Originally published 08/07/2007 on jousrnalstar.com)

Something changed in the seasons, just now.

And it’s not just because the week of 100 degree weather is over. Something just changed as distinctly as the flip of a switch…it feels like fall.

There’s certain signs of the changing seasons in the city, like sunflowers at the farmers market or flowers in the downtown planters looking dry, lanky, tired. But I went home to my mom’s house in the country for the weekend and getting out of the city made it so obvious.

There’s so many crickets. Several generations of crickets all singing rounds…melancholy like it’s the last day of summer camp. Sunlight hits the fields at a different angle. The wind rattles the fields more than rustles them.

And I swear I felt something chilly at the tail end of the wind.