[ul]
[li]I turned off the A/C[/li][li]I actually opened a window[/li][li]I’m using a blanket to hide under rather than a sheet, AND the fan in the bedroom is off[/li][li]I’ve had soup for lunches and dinners in the last week![/li][/ul]
I love this time of year 
The snowbirds are coming back from Canada and New York.
They clog up my precious highways and drive too slowly, all 3 lanes, side by side, doing 5mph under speed limit, grrrrr.
It’s getting down to maybe 70 at night, brrrr.
Anticipating a lower electric bill this month from using less a/c.
Ah, yes, the snowbirds. I almost forgot about them. The traffic goes from horrible to kill-me-now-please. That’s really when you know winter is coming here.
Winter is coming when the frozen-custard stand and the local drive-in movie theater close for the season.
Robin
I am sitting at the computer, and still wearing clothes.
My African coworkers are wearing hooded coats, and hats. Some have gloves. I am still in shorts and a tee shirt, but my jacket is in the car, in case I need it.
Tris
Two things. It begins to rain a lot and the big swells start rolling in on the North Shore.
But you’re making my point. Why a binary world? Why no love for shades of…well, yello and red in this case.
And we are in fall, but a lot of the reponses here are more like “how do you know summer is over?” I’m noting how I know fall is over.
For some of us, there are only two seasons. We have “Hot; Wet” and “Warm, Moist”. Our leaves hang on until February, when they turn brown, fall off, and are almost immediately replaced.
We may be in fall as far as the weather service is concerned, but that doesn’t really mean much to me. For me, fall never ends, because it never begins. I still wear a t-shirt and shorts unless I’m at work. The difference between our seasons means that come December / January / February, it’ll be a t-shirt and jeans.
My response may have sounded like “how I know summer’s over”, but I meant it. In the high summer, it usually hovers right around 85 - 88 overnight. The temperature dipping down to 74 (which it is now, at 1 a.m.) tells me winter is coming.
Now, twickster is not among us low-latitude types, but I understand her desire to rush through fall – if I had a real, full-on winter waiting for me, I’d wanna rush too.
The squirrels are running around like crazy, grabbing whatever they can to stock up. The parks are full of insane squirrels and dogs straining on leashes to kill them.
I start looking for the winter clothes. The “s-word” was bandied about on tonight’s forecast, flurries perhaps later in the week. Time to dig out the sweaters and cords, the closed-toe shoes.
Flannel sheets on the bed, the electric blanket, then a comforter.
That funny “first time on” furnace smell. It always gives me a headache.
I feel the need to wear socks indoors. My feet are very sensitive to cold even though I prefer to go barefoot as much as possible during warm weather.
I dunno about you, but around here, we’re in the tail end of autumn. Or, we usually are, by this time of year, but this year it seems to be hanging on past its time. I’ve seen seven Halloweens here, and all seven of them have been snow-covered (this year remains to be seen, of course).
As for the signs: Lately, I’m mostly having to do two loads of laundry a week, instead of one (long pants and shirts are bulkier). And last week, they were blowing out the sprinklers on campus.
I’m getting lots done. I only really work hard in late fall, early winter, and early spring. Over December, most of spring, and all of summer, I dick around a lot.
When it gets colder in the house than outside. Then, when it starts to rain, we know that winter is here!
I can no longer sleep on top of the comforter, but under.
The heater is on.
I have to use the hot and cold faucets to wash my face (cold along is too cold now)
No mo lightening bugs.
leaves are falling.
Stopped shaving my legs.
It’s been hot.
No, not that hot: hotter. No, no, hotter than that!
As in hitting 48C in the shadow for a couple weeks, and then people saying “oh, it’s so nice, we’re getting temperatures below 36C at night!” for about a month (36C being the temperature of the human body, more or less)
And then, one morning, I leave the house, and instead of 34C, my car reads 17C. DAMNIT so that’s why they call it FALL!
Fair enough. I’ve lived in San Francisco where they have absolutly no seasons at all. And England where the have a full four seasons but usually all in the same day.
See, that’s just why I want to linger on fall!
I know winter is coming when I have to start wearing nylons with my skirts.
But that’s ok, because hockey season has started. Without hockey on TV, I’d never survive winter.
Autumn’s my favourite time of year, those lovely crisp mornings when the first frosts come and the ground’s crunchy.
There’s a gradual change at home from short sleeved clothes to long sleeved tops, thicker trousers, a fleece instead of a cotton jacket, and eventually the thicker duvet will come out. At the moment I’ve still got the summer duvet on the bed but I’m sleeping under it instead of on top.
The contents of my delivered organic veg box change to more root vegetables, and I start thinking about stodgy comfort food instead of salads. Oh, that means I have to go to the gym more often too…
Why, so the Habs can disappoint yet again? Heh…sorry. That was mean.
Um, I know it’s winter when I can’t (reasonably) golf any more. I hate winter. I hate cold. I hate everything associated with winter. I hate snow. I hate driving in it. Gah! I’m not looking forward to it.
There’s something fundamentally wrong with going to sleep when it’s dark…then waking up, and it’s still dark.
I’ll be sitting in the corner, pouting. Come back, summer!
(with all this bitching, I really don’t mind it. I just CERTAINLY don’t prefer it.)
It’s dark when I wake up. I dislike that, but not nearly as much as I’m dreading that in a few weeks, it will also be dark when I leave work. The worst thing about winter is never seeing daylight.
I’ve had to close the bedroom windows at night. (I’m loathe to close the windows, I like lots of air.) I’m wearing sweats and socks at home, instead of shorts, tank, and flip flops.
I broke down and swapped out my wardrobe this weekend. I made sure all my warmest pajamas are clean. I won’t turn on the heat until I absolutely can’t take it anymore, as my gas bill tends toward the obscene.
On the upside, the days are beautiful, the leaves are pretty, and my house smells of freshly picked apples.
You clearly haven’t experienced a real, full-on winter in a long time! I haaaaaaaaate winter. I hate to be cold, and in the city, snow is pretty for about an hour, and then it’s grey sludge that makes it difficult to get where I need to go. If the worst thing about winter is the lack of daylight, a very close second is trying to walk to the train station in the icy, snowbank-narrowed streets, without slipping and/or getting hit by a car. All winter long, I take my life in my hands just to get to work.