October is a Lie!

I woke up yesterday and realized it was the first day of October. At least that's what my calendar said. I don't believe it.

October is supposed to be cold. The leaves are supposed to have changed/are changing colors. The air has a bite. Football is always on.

Here, there's no football, the leaves are still green (well, some are a little dark, but that's just because they've been burnt to a crisp out in the sun) and it's still triple digit temperatures.

I can't tell that anything has changed - ok, the temperature isn't 130, but it's still up there. There's no real discernable difference. I keep crossing off days, I keep flipping calendar pages, but I don't really know that time is actually moving. Folks at home tell me that it is - I know that school let out for the summer, and I heard about the summer vacations, I know that kids are back in school, and I know that some folks already have the fires burning at night. But I feel like the universe is just playing a big practical joke on me. I feel like I'm going to wake up one morning and find out that it's really the middle of July and everyone's going to be laughing at me. I wouldn't know the difference...

But if it's true, then: Welcome, October. Since you are my last full month here, you are indeed a welcome sight.

In other news, I was able to meet Randy Johnson, Dennis Haysbert, and Robert Patrick earlier this week. For those you don't know, Randy Johnson played in the MLB for 22 years and was known for 1) his height, 2) his gross mustache, and 3) his intimidating fastball. And it's all true. Well, I guess I didn't really see him throw a baseball, but I was intimidated when he was just standing there. He could have tossed a gumball to me and I probably would have dropped to the ground.

Dennis Haysbert has the voice that soothes (he's the guy from the Allstate commercials, as well as the tv show The Unit). I could have listened to him talk all day... But since all he said to me was "hi" it would have just been weird to stand there and keep listening.

Probably the least known is Robert Patrick, at least for me. He's also on the tv show The Unit and has made a career for himself playing the villain (he was T-1000 in Terminator 2 - others who have seen that movie probably know him better than I do). But I'll tell you what, he was the nicest of the three. He seemed genuinely happy to be there and was chatty when the other guys weren't. Not that I'm complaining - they spend days and days just standing around, shaking hands, getting their pictures taken - I appreciate it. But he just seemed really glad to be there. And we were happy to have them.

Just some guys, hanging out.