Good time of year

Fall is here, my favorite season of the year.

Probably the number one reason for that is the fact that this season ushers in cooler weather. But God smiled on us here in middle Tennessee this year and we had such a pleasant summer, I can hardly complain. We hardly made it into the 90s and never even got to 100 degrees.

Still, there's a crispness in the air now that tells me it's that time of year where not only the temperature drops, but we don't have the stifling humidity either. I want to be outside as much as possible.

September brings the intersection of two of my favorite seasons in sports -- the end of the Major League baseball season, which brings in post-season play, and the beginning of college football.

In baseball, the hapless Houston Astros, whom I long ago claimed as "my" team, once again posted a 100-loss season, this being their first in the American League (and I'm not too happy about that either). Something's gotta give. I don't know what it is, but something.

On a brighter note, my adopted favorite National League team, the Atlanta Braves, whom I can see by driving about 3.5 hours from my front door, clinched the eastern division just today.

Atlanta's a sentimental favorite because Older Son, when he was a wee lad, used to watch them on cable (TBS) when they became "America's Team" and they became "his" team. When he was eight, he and I flew out to Atlanta from Little Rock, where we lived at the time, and saw them play at the old Fulton County Stadium.

That started our quest to go to every MLB park. He's well over half-way there, having added Nationals Stadium in D.C. this summer. I'm a little behind him. I've been to Philly and he hasn't, and he's seen the Giants, As and Marlins play at home, which I have not. Most of the others we've managed to do together and often Wife, Younger Son, Daughter, and now DIL and DSO, have been with us.

I'm hopeful that one day we'll cross through the turnstill together at our last park and it will be a glorious celebration.

As I said, I'm also a college football fan and it's now in full swing. We suffered through a terrible season with Auburn last year so, with a new coach (and coaching staff), we're hoping for better things. At 3-1 (after having their first loss last night against SEC powerhouse LSU), they've already won as many as they did last year.

We were down last week for the Mississippi State game and got to see a win. Also visited Younger Son, now in his third year, and he's doing great. He is living in the fraternity house this year and we visited his room, which he and his roommate had dutifully cleaned before hosting us.

I'm not much of an NFL fan anymore but had a late invitation to go see the Tennessee Titans here at home in Nashville today, so spent a beautiful afternoon there and got to see a Titans win.

It really is a nice time of year.

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Wife, Daughter and I will soon be taking a very nice vacation. We'll leave here the evening of October 3rd and arrive in London the next morning. We'll stay there a few days, then visit the Cotswolds outside of London for a couple of days. We'll take the Eurostar train through the English Channel to Paris, and come back home on the 14th.

Traveling with my two favorite girls, there's no doubt it will be a great time. If I don't get around to posting something before we leave, look for a retrospective and photos when we get back.