Please disregard yesterday’s obligatory YK sermon.  It’s sort of a tradition, as it were, one of the few I “religiously” carry on.  Hopefully as the old school passes on, things have changed for the better.

I’ve got nothing as far as profound High Holy Day thoughts.  Just some vague stomach grumblings.

I don’t even have a weather report, other than it’s cool and cloudy but with no hope of rain.  Not even rumblings.  Then again, you never know.

Misu joined me on my desk to gaze out the window.  And that’s our exciting day.  I put myself to sleep.  Snore.

Once again it’s erev Yom Kippur, nobody’s favorite Holy Day.  Guilt, judgment, depression, regret…YK’s got it all.  And you can’t even escape into eating and drinking, because it’s a fast day! Traditional Jews torture themselves at synagogue literally all day in an Olympian feat of fashion competition and obsession with FOOD.  With all the relentless standing, sitting, and repeating, you’d think folks would lose weight, but they’ve made sure to stuff themselves pre-fast, lest g-d forbid they starve to death.  That is, if they haven’t been given a special dispensation by their doctor to waive the fast so as to take their meds with food, lest they die, which pretty much covers the majority of worshippers.  So the traditional greeting of “have an easy fast” is mostly just a polite expression.

Me, cynical?!  Nah.  Just glad to have all that ordeal behind me.  It’s one of the few things I don’t regret, on YK.  Still, I fast out of some vestigial guilt, or just a rare excuse to cleanse the old overloaded system.  Do I contemplate deep spiritual things while fasting?  Not really.  I do my annual mental exercise of remembering how much I take eating for granted, while much of the world starves.  I observe myself obsessing over food even while knowing for a fact I’m not even hungry.  I conjecture how this psych tendency probably originates from our collective Jewish history of persecution and resulting insecurity and fear.  Mostly I just anticipate sundown (if I make it that long) and beer!  At least I admit I’m a hypocrite.

And there you have it, my infamous YK sermon, before YK has even begun.  Just thinking ahead.  Saves me the trouble tomorrow.  Still time for drink o’clock.  My son had the better idea–he went to Sweden!  Makes me contemplate…smoked salmon!  Oy.

That’s it.  I’ve had it with TN meteorology.  I’ve lost all faith in big green rain blobs.  This one just took off into the night and dissipated, no parking, contrary to days of assurances.  Nothing is predictable here.  I’m throwing in my fake meteorologist badge.  Blah.  From now on I’m pretending to ignore weather and maybe it won’t go away, but that’s not my affair.  I’m retired from weather.

Right on schedule, which is unusual for here, it’s pouring and will continue through the day, night, and probably into tomorrow.  Misu and I welcomed it out in the field, where I could see the front moving in and feel the anticipation of the trees.  The wind whipped up, leaves began seriously falling, and it finally began to act like early Fall.  For a change, the meteorological Big Green Blob is parked directly over TN.  And Misu the blobcat is happily parked on my office floor to wait it out.

Here are some seasonal textures and colors just before the rain.

The plant world just can’t get enough of this welcome rain.  Things are starting to green up again.  Overnight it turned into early fall.  Here are more rainy scenes …

The rumors proved to be true!  It rained all night and will continue on and off for days.  The temps are breaking as well and becoming more seasonal.  All my parched trees and wildflowers are happy, so I’m happy.  It’s a welcome relief.  Plus for once I don’t have to water.

After the rainy spell, I can finally get out there and plant all my tree saplings, transplant natives, clean up the garden beds, resume serious soil amending, and plant more wildflower seeds and fall/winter greens.  I can get back into my natural element.

Here are some early morning scenes in the rain.  Misu was fascinated by the wet stuff!

I want to believe!  It looks like we’re on the verge of a weather shift, finally.  (You probably thought I was going to say political change, but I don’t want to jinx it!  So hold that metaphorical thought.)

The air is changing, and there will be rain?! in the forecast for the coming days.  Temps are supposed to fall to near the normal average.  Again, holding that thought…

Misu was terrorizing this little bunny all morning–I think it’s the one I rescued the other day.  After hours of torture and no resolution, I finally just brought Misu indoors.  Law of the Jungle aside, enough was enough!

I’ve pretty much put photo-taking on hold until something interesting happens.  Instead, here’s another still life and a margarita.

It’s headed for 98º today.  Ninety-eight degrees.  In October.  The next few days will continue in the high 80s, but then something weird will happen–after the weekend it’s supposed to go from 80s to 68 in one day, with rain?!  I’ll believe it when I see it.  After that it will remain in the mid-70s to 80s for over a week.  The average for mid-October here is 71º.

If anyone is reading this, let me suggest providing fresh drinking water for critters in your yard when it’s so hot and dry like this.  It’s hard for them to find moisture, even in plants right now.  They will thank you by surviving to play their essential interdependent roles preserving our environment and food sources.

In that vein, here’s yesterday’s icy old-fashioned, and some persistent flowers.  I think I saw one lonely monarch butterfly in the field today, but it got away.

It’s so hot and dry, when I walk in the brown stubble that used to be grass, it leaves puffs of dust in my wake, like a cartoon.

Ironically, it turns out the only green patch of lawn around, behind the meth-house next door, was caused by their septic system overflowing.  We found out when a septic truck finally showed up.  We wondered why it always smelled like sewage over there.  Eww.  Not the kind of manure I prefer.

The only flowers thriving are, unsurprisingly, tropicals.  Maybe because our climate seems to be going in that direction.  Tennessee, the new Florida?  In more ways than one.

We’re still in the mid-to-high 90s this week, feels like 100° +.  But then this weekend it’s supposed to suddenly drop 10°, then another sudden >10º drop right after that.  So in a matter of days it will go from 97 to 88 to 72!  Then climb back up in the 80s for a while.  The average for this time of year down here is low 70s. What a roller coaster.  But what’s this?!  Do I see a hint of rain in the forecast?  No, it must be a mirage.  I dimly remember rain.

It being so hot on Day 2 of RH, of course I grilled chicken outside, with a Middle Eastern rub.  The rest was leftovers in the same theme.  For some reason it always feels more natural to me to cook Sephardic style, not Ashkenazic.  It’s where I feel at home.  Same with music–Arabic/Persian/Indian music feels much more familiar and comfortable to me.  It’s like I skipped the whole Eastern European chapter of history and came straight from the Middle East to here.  Don’t ask me why.  I do prefer heat to cold, so I guess that worked out.

It’s getting really challenging to find anything to photograph…I know right?!  It’s so hot and dry out, leaves are skipping the turning colors part and just turning brown and falling.  It feels like a desert.  A photo-desert.  But I scrounged up a few random shots.  Here’s Misu being cute in her latest box, up on the file cabinet behind the printer.  And this is as close as it gets to autumny colors.