September has arrived and, although fall has not officially begun, the temperatures have dropped. When I left for the pool this morning, my thermometer read 55 degrees. The bubble doesn’t go up until next weekend, so mornings like that feel brisk.

Predictable Trends

That makes it easier to put the summer behind us and look forward to autumn. Several predictable trends happen in the fall:

• Pumpkin spice items appear in stores and restaurants
• Students arrive at the 45 colleges and universities around Boston and Cambridge
• The trucks they use to move in with will hit bridges on Storrow Drive
• Cruise ships arrive in Boston, sometimes three at the same time, as part of their journeys up the East Coast to Canada
• CBS will delay 60 Minutes until whenever the football game ends
• Parents will pay premium prices for their children to perform field-hand labor in apple orchards
• Morning traffic will slow down due to school bus stops
• I will eat too many apple-cider doughnuts

Roundup of August 2022 Posts

Having said that, I will look back on August’s posts in The Next Phase Blog. This is Labor Day weekend, which means you may be sitting on a beach at the ocean, on a dock at the lake, or on a porch in the mountains. You have the time.

Put politics, work, and other pressures aside. Here’s your chance to learn something new by catching up on any August 2022 posts you might have missed.

Boston and History

• Terminal Upgrades and Sea-Level Rise – Aline
• Faneuil Hall’s History Painting – Aline
• The Bachelor Apartments on Beacon Street — Aline

Earth and Sky

• Puddingstone in Somerset — Aline

Friends & Family

• An Extended Family and a Gift of Food — Susanne

Health and Safety

• A Comprehensive Guide to Keeping Your Brain Healthy – Guest Author
• Your Life Expectancy: Green or Yellow? – Aline
• Watching Disaster Happen — Aline

Movies and Television

• Flattening the City on a Hill — Aline

Travel

• Notes from Our August Road Trip — Aline

Living in Interesting Times

We live in interesting times and a lot of things are going on in American today. I don’t comment on them because I avoid writing about politics, guns and religion. But I will say that the time has come to start paying attention, if you have not been already.

This may be August 2022, but the November midterm election is coming up fast. Serious issues require serious thought. Don’t depend on others to do the job for you.

Get out and VOTE! This may be the most important election by far in many, many years.