This Time Last Year...

It is something all five of us find ourselves saying often lately.  Coming into the home stretch of our one year mark we are doing the last yearly celebrations for the first time here in India.  Being from the Midwest autumn has always been colorful, sounds are crisp and air is chilled.  While we lived on the west coast for some time and really loved winters there in comparison to the Midwest winters, we always missed the colors and feel of cool air and crunching leaves beneath our step.  We find we are really missing that here too.  Autumn is lovely in the Midwest and family and friends there always make it warm and cozy to remember.  This week in particular we have missed the scarecrow festival, the long four day weekend, the smell of the crab apple tree blossoms from our yard and the excitement of decorating for Halloween.  We have very little for decorations for most of the holidays but I apparently packed nothing for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Probably because I was using it when the moving truck came to take everything at this time last year.  I must have decided to just store the items.  I really don’t remember those details but we do miss it, the fall in the Midwest.  And we miss you.

Autumn in India or in Delhi anyway is much like late summer in the Midwest.  Warm, sunny, a few scattered showers now and again.  Power goes out more often here than in the Midwest.  It has been happening at least once a day.  Battery operated clocks are the way to go.  Our kitchen stove clock has not been set in months.  I leave it flashing at 12:00 rather than set it so often I would wear out the buttons.  Strange what a change in location can do for a person.  Leaving my clock flash on 12:00 would have made me crazy in the past.  Some of you reading are trying to figure out a way to make it stop as you read this, I can tell, it would drive you crazy too.  But we all choose our battles and stopping the clock is not a battle I choose for today.  With all the rain and puddles from the monsoon season which is thankfully drawing to an end, there are potholes everywhere in the roads.  It is more understandable why a person would choose to own a large Scorpio vehicle, one like a jeep, as an in town vehicle of choice to maneuver the rough roads of Delhi.  Areas are beginning to dry up now that the rain is not so heavy.  Grass is beginning to show signs of little rain and more tree foliage is scattered on the roads and walkways but there has never been the color we see in the Midwest.  Just magically, now you see it now you don’t but in reverse.  Temperatures are still in the low 90s as our highs and lows in the low 70s so the weather really feels like late summer without the humidity.  We haven’t done a full circle around the sun yet but it is getting closer and I really think this is a good time for you all to plan visits for Delhi.  Water is fine, hop on in.