It is so far into the season now that I only use the word "autumn"...after all, except for maybe the temperatures and some precipitation, there really isn't anything left to fall. The leaves are already down, the flower blossoms have already dropped off, and I've noticed a number of hemlines have even lowered, maybe to help keep legs warmer? So, I prefer to refrain from using the word "fall" until maybe next year.

It's during this time of the year that I tend to reflect more on the brighter, warmer months of the year that have passed. I've been doing just that lately, but have found that this year's reflections are filled with mixed emotions. After all, it was a rough and tough, bumpedy spring and summer for us, so some memories are not so great. However, some were pretty darn nice.

What's most important is that we pulled through it and, when it became clear to both of us that we each wanted us to stay together, we felt a whole new sense of hope and the will to brave whatever life may bring our way. This was at the tail-end of summer. It was almost as if the end of one season to start another was like our own personal end of a season so that we could begin another. How appropriate, then, could this year's end-of-summer event in town be?



Every year, my little town of Bristol, RI, holds a Last Night event to close out the summer season. It is a pops concert by the RI Philharmonic Orchestra and it takes place at the waterside park where so many other events take place throughout the summer. People come with their chairs and blankets, sit, relax, and listen to great music while enjoying the sights of the harbor at this last event of the summer.



The music proved to be wonderful. Selections included a tribute to Michael Jackson and a fabulous orchestral arrangement of "America the Beautiful". There were movie themes and patriotic numbers. And, ohhh, Mother Nature could not have been any kinder, for she gave us the most beautiful sky that one could hope for on that evening.



Although we may have been somewhere in the midst of that crowd, Edie and I enjoyed our time alone, just sitting in our chairs close to each other, getting caught up together in the sights and sounds that were there for us to enjoy, taking pictures here and there, and making new memories to add to those we already have.