October days

Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We'll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure.
Thomas Wolfe

We've had no significant rain in Seattle for 76 days, and for those of us that follow weather records, the August-September precipitation was the driest in 65 years. Almost a lifetime. The closest moisture falling from the sky is in Denver right now, where it's snowing.

Unfortunately the autumn smoke we're smelling today is from the wildfires burning all across the state, made worse by gusty winds. There's a dry chill in the air, and it feels more like high altitude mountain weather than our usual damp fall in Seattle. 

The summer water bill came yesterday, including a graph from Seattle Public Utilities, kindly pointing out our dramatic consumption increase over last year.  I'm so done with dragging hoses around the yard, and I'm bringing the summer crowd inside for the winter.