absent.canadian

There’s a few subtle reminders that Jack Frost is right around the corner – even in this fair part of North Carolina.

• If I leave my car outside for the night, there’s the audible sound of cold windshield wipers scraping over a very thin layer of frost on the glass.
• When I take Sydney for a walk in the morning, the first breath of “outside” air has that crisp, invigorating feeling like no other.  It’s a feeling I knew all too well in Calgary, starting in early September and persisting until May.
• The days are getting shorter.  Daylight savings time really put a cramp on that; the sun is well into its descent on my drive home.  Again, this was even more notable in Calgary, where sunset during this time of the year comes at around 4:45 PM, and the sun doesn’t peek back up until about 9:30 AM.  (for those of you not from Raleigh, sunset is currently 5:10 PM and sunrise is around 6:45 AM)

The funny thing is, I still *really* look forward to this time of the year.  Autumn is the most liminal season for me; much more than a simple metaphor for dying leaves and the first snowfalls.  Autumn marks the last full season in the calendar year, and the first semester in the traditional school year.  It’s a remarkable confabulation of holidays; Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving and Christmas at the tail-end, with Veterans Day (Remembrance Day for my fellow Canucks) and Hanukkah thrown in for good measure.  (OK, I know some of these are technically “winter” holidays, but they’re close enough – and we *are* talking about liminality, right?)

Good day, eh?

… a continuation of my earlier post.

We arrived in Calgary on the afternoon of August 14th – ironically, our wedding anniversary. One of our first stops was to our old apartment at Collingwood and Caribou in the northwest. It was an odd feeling to stand in a place we hadn’t seen in almost 6 years, but it also felt good to “come home”. The two apartments we had at this intersection were among the most comfortable we had ever lived in, and I still have fond memories of some cold Calgary nights, curled up in our little abode.

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