Have you ever felt like there’s an invisible line in the universal continuum? That as soon as we cross a date we’ve arbitrarily designated as Labor Day, we’re just biding our time until we start skiing again?
What is it, anyway, that causes us to equate a specific date as the end of a season? On August 31, we stand firmly on the shores of summer. But on September 1, we wake up and suddenly, we’re in the Ber zone: September, October, November, December. We’re ready to hang up the water skis and start picking apples. Ski season is closer. We can feel it in the air.
Maybe it’s not as arbitrary as it sounds. Even though astronomers say summer doesn’t officially end until the fall equinox (around September 22), meteorologists have long contended that summer ends on August 31. This is because they divide the calendar into four equal parts to help with their weather forecasting.
Culturally, it’s easy to equate September 1 with fall. Kids are going back to school, new car models arrive, new TV series begin (traditionally, anyway), long-range snow forecasts come out, new ski gear appears in shops, and ski magazines publish their gear and resort guides.
Here in Vermont, we’re pretty much Fall Central. If you’ve never been to New England in the Autumn, I highly recommend it. I doubt there’s anything like it anywhere else in the world.
Soon the snow will fly, and those who haven’t stopped by TheSkiDiva.com for a while will drop in to get their pre-season ski fix. I hope you will, too. Because after all, it’s fall.
I’ll leave you today with some seasonal pictures of fall here in the Green Mountain State:
