Labor Day 2018

 Although I am no longer a member of the paid workforce, I welcome the long Labor Day holiday as the unofficial end of summer.   The mere act of flipping the page in my calendar to September evokes the hope of fall harvest, football, apples, vibrant colors.

The nights are already getting cooler.  Acorns hang in fat clusters on my neighbor's oak trees.  In my side yard, a red-tailed hawk  can't get off the ground with the fat carcass of the rabbit it just killed.  As the hawk sullenly pecks at the carcass.  I silently cheer -- one less rabbit gnawing on the hostas.  I hope the hawk returns to feast on other fat rabbits, tasty squirrels and chunky chipmunks that have menaced my garden all summer.  

It has been a long hot, dry summer.