Dear Kid,

Happy October 1!

It’s the month of ghosts, goblins, and witches, Breast Cancer Awareness, and the best bagels of the year at Panera.

It’s Adopt a Shelter Dog month (woof), Cookie month (yum), and in honor of college students everywhere it’s National Pizza month and National Popcorn Popping month. In one of the coolest moves ever, it is Sarcastic month. I don’t know who gets to decide stuff like that, but I think they might be my favorite stranger of the day.

October 1 is the birthday of Yosemite National Park (established 1890), the day the Model T was unveiled (1908) [who even knew cars wore veils?], the day Johnny Carson debuted as the Tonight Show host (1962) [he was the host for a loooong time before Leno was], the day former President Jimmy Carter was born (1924), and the day Roger Maris broke the home run record (1961).

It is also the day National Geographic was first published (1888) [forever changing the way teenage boys thought about tribal life], the day the first World Series game was played (1903), the anniversary of when Little Golden Books began publishing children’s books (1942) [I love those books], the first time “In God We Trust” appeared on US paper currency (1957), the day the Concorde 001 broke the sound barrier in a test flight (1969), the anniversary of  Disney World opening in Orlando (1971), the day the first games of the World Hockey Association were played (1972), and the day the Cartoon Cable Network launched (1992).

The Amazing Julie Andrews and Grete Waitz were both born on this day. Not in the same year. And it’s World Vegetarian Day (you can celebrate by smiling at a piece of lettuce).

A bunch of other good stuff happened too, so it’s a day for smiling. [Note: In all fairness, a bunch of bad stuff happened too, but I don’t feel at all obligated to discuss bad stuff here today. My blog, my rules.]

We all woke up this morning, which is another pretty darn good reason to be happy.

Since it’s October, it’s officially fall (please don’t bother me with what the calendar says–see “my blog, my rules” above).

The trees are starting to turn (I tell you this in case you have your nose buried in your books or your phone on the way to classes), the temperature is cool enough to make wearing a jacket early in  the morning a good idea, and Booker is starting to shed like crazy. Crazy being the operative word. I keep telling him I am not going to glue his fur back on and he might actually appreciate a warmer coat in a month or so, but he just wags his tail, asks me to keep scratching, and sheds like it’s his job.

Other signs of fall abound. Dad is buying cider like there is no tomorrow (and I certainly hope there is a tomorrow because I have the blog half written), Mr. D across the street is no longer mowing his lawn twice a day, and I am looking up recipes for things like stuffed acorn squash and interesting varieties of soup all of which I’m unlikely to ever get around to making.

We have harvested this year’s crop of cantaloupe: one melon is the size of a softball, one the size of a baseball, and one an enlarged golf ball. In another experiment, Dad planted watermelon this year. The total harvest is one slightly deflated kid size football. The fruit industry has nothing to fear from us.

Happy fall,

Love, Mom