Hoodies!

Oh yes. I'm sitting here snuggled in one of my favorite hoodies gleefully reveling in the crisp fresh cool fall air streaming in through the open doors and windows.

That's right. I've opened all the doors and windows I can possibly open. While all of our doors open just fine, such is not the case for all our windows. If you've ever lived in an older house with old windows you understand the situation without further explanation required. But there's one window in our house that slides open with the lightest of touches from just one finger. That's my favorite window in the whole house.

Dudley is in high watchdog alert mode. Opening the front door gives him a whole new perspective. Now he can stand up on the arm of the couch and not only survey the part of his domain visible through the front window, but also by turning his head just a tad he can now keep an eye on the rest of the front yard and street. He has sounded the alarm several times this morning. Enough times that Wendy is threatening to close the front door if he doesn't settle down. But oh, how I am enjoying the fresh air flowing in. I'm also enjoying Dudley's boo-wooing. Everything feels so alive today.

I'd forgotten how much a little cool air perks me up. The trees haven't really started turning yet but, as I noticed on our trip this weekend, they are not as intense a green as they were three weeks ago. For now I will ignore the harsh implication of what the leaves about to turn really means. Thoughts of raking the blankets of leaves which will soon cover our yard can wait for another day.

Each fall when it comes time to rake the leaves, I think of my father's motto: "What god puts down, god will take away." Yeah, but will those leaves be gone before the grass suffocates and dies? Not without human interference. But I don't have to think about that today.

Today is exclusively for enjoying cool crisp air, a favorite hooded sweatshirt, and football. Today it's good to be me.