Fall has fallen

Native Writes

I scraped my windshield Monday morning and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t alone.
Colorful leaves scatter on the ground and the crisp, cold air hints of winter, which isn’t due until Dec. 21.
Will it wail in early like a premature baby, delivering what it has and asking for extra care in return?
My neck told me there would likely be snow over the weekend, but Mother Nature seems to wait just a little bit longer. My neck has been predicting the change in weather since I was 13 and got bucked off a horse but it’s often inaccurate.
There’s no way snow will fall everywhere but my front yard, so I will just have to take what nature delivers. Playing in the snow at age six is far different than shoveling the walk after age 70.
It was gratifying to learn that Wolf Creek Ski Area has enough snow to open and, in fact was the first ski area in the nation to do so.
The San Luis Valley is ignored so often by the nation itself that nature once in a while makes sure we’re noticed.
We are often so brutally cold that Alamosa freezes sooner than Nome, Alaska even the chill in the air is no surprise. Bundling up is still only slightly necessary, so my heavy stuff rides around on the back seat of my car.
The crops are mostly in, though I see farmers watering what may be yet another hay or alfalfa cutting and I remember the days of my youth when artesian wells spewed their abundance into the air, creating ice sculptures on many farms.
Those days are gone. We are told to conserve water due to a dwindling aquifer and we will.
Ice “sculptures” may no longer be possible. It was warmer than usual in the Valley last winter, causing “old timers” like myself to talk about the winter it was more than 50 degrees below zero.
My hot water heater froze and I had three teen and near-teen boys at home who couldn’t get ready for school without hot water. I still have the huge aluminum kettle I used to heat water so faces could be washed and bodies swabbed. No one was happy, save the plumber who came to thaw things out and give tips to prevent it happening again.
TV news reports that huge groups of people have been without heat or hot water in the metro areas and I sympathize. Some of their problems are bad luck, while others are due to landlord negligence and still others are due to the fact that the people themselves don’t know how to make the best of what they have.
My furnace and water heater roared into action Monday morning and I thought of my good fortune.
I have a pellet stove I don’t know how to light — it was in the home I moved into over near Trinidad State — but I am sure it will provide cozy warmth when we can get our act together.
Halloween decorations are being put up around town and the frost is on the pumpkin, so there is hope for another “normal” fall.
Whenever someone asks where I am from, I proudly say, “the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Thank you for asking.”