It felt more like summer than autumn lately, with highest hitting 93F yesterday and 91F today in our area. Having lived here for so many years, it comes as no surprise for me to experience the prolonged heat wave in November or even in winter. But it is really time for a cool season.

 

During lunch time today, I went grocery shopping.  The sun was beaming down from the cloudless sky; the road was shimmering with heat. Christmas songs were on the radio, and I felt a bit weird to be listening to the “Most wonderful season of the year” in a summer-like weather day. On the way back from the shopping, I was stuck in the traffic. The road in between turned out to be under construction.  I should have chosen a different route, but I just was not sure at the time. Now that I was in the lane, there was no turning back. Like in our life sometimes. I had to sit behind the wheel, with the air-conditioning and radio on, “jingling” anxiously all the way back to work. It took me about 13 minutes to drive through this less- than- a-mile block. 

 

The city is losing its charm to me. Everywhere we go, the traffic is mostly bad and the parking lot is always packed.  Theft and burglary are recently reported in this safe city. Ten years ago when we first moved to this new community, we were bordered by the vast strawberry fields.  In the ripening early summer time, the sweet strawberry aroma filled the air. Now they give way to numerous new homes. The other day, when I drove by the high school my daughter went to, I was equally surprised that the hills, at the foot of which the school is nestled,  are also dotted with new high end homes.  Gone are the decades old trees which stood in the open distance. Gone are the patches of purple lupines which bloomed on the roadside in the spring.  Gone are the good days when we could occasionally roam around the area after school.  They are now only in our memories.