A wedge of cool air has settled over a substantial chunk of Alabama. The highs this week have only barely touched 80, and there’s been some misty rain and wind to go along with the lower temperatures.

Ah, it’s truly delicious weather, especially at the beginning of August, when we could be having a heat wave with 100 degree meltdowns.

I’ve sat on the front porch as much as possible. Last night it was cool enough for older ladies to need a blanket.

Who am I kidding? I needed a blanket, out there in my T-shirt and shorts, feeling the chill from the brisk, northerly winds, so I got one and wrapped myself up after I ate a steaming bowl of fresh chili.

It’s not too early to make the first pot of the season, is it? After all, football games will be starting in a matter of weeks, so I need to practice, just like the boys in their helmets and pads out on the fields.

For the last two days, I’ve been pretending it is already fall, and I am training for the real thing when it finally decides to come. I’ve burned a candle named “Autumn Harvest.” I’ve watched TikToks of fall recipes: savory soups, crockpot creations, and hearty Halloween treats. I’ve Googled tiny witch hats for Zelda, our fluffy black cat, and I’ve dreamed of training her to walk with a harness and go trick-or-treating. 

Oh, and yes, most everyone in my area is going back to school this week. What better fall activity could you possibly have than a return to school? 

Speaking of candles, there should be a special one created in honor of the first days of school. We would have the wood shavings and the lead fragments of a freshly sharpened pack of Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils. Let’s add the fumes of the new wax on the hallway floors, all shiny and ready for Open House, after which the scuffs of new shoes will dull the finish within two weeks’ time. 

And we can’t have a back-to-school themed candle without the heady and robust scent of a seventh grade class’s collective B.O., covered up with Axe body spray and Sol de Janeiro dupes, after a 5th period physical education class during which they would have also had chili crispitos with refried beans for lunch.

We really need those cooler temperatures to hold, and maybe we’ll stick to burgers and chicken sandwiches for the first few days of school. Less volatile gas potential.

You don’t know how ripe a class of middle schoolers can be until you’ve had thirty of them in a classroom after both their P.E. and lunch time.

Alas, we’ll be back to the 90 degree days by the time the kids return on Friday. We’ll break into a sweat just walking from our car to whatever air conditioned solace in which we can take refuge.

Gone will be the times of feeling refreshed, until we’ve shed our sweaty clothes and showered away the day’s grime.

Of course, when the temperatures really decide to drop, we will say that we’ve skipped right through the fall and gone straight to winter. With a huff and a puff we will declare it to be the truth, we with our short memories and long complaints.

We will have forgotten days like what we’ve just enjoyed, this lovely respite from August’s usual hell.

But for at least one more evening, I will sit in my leggings on the front porch and dream of Tuscan potato soup, chicken gnocchi, and caramel apple tarts.

And more chili.

Just not for the seventh graders.