The Best and the Worst of Fall

I have mixed emotions every year as fall rolls around.

On the positive side, there’s college football.  I’m a lifelong Mountaineer fan, and I try my best to get to one ball game a year in Morgantown.  The rest of time I’m glued to the television, jumping, yelling and cheering like I was actually in the stands with the rest of the 65,000 rowdy fans.  My wife and daughters also enjoy game day and all of the fun, food and friendship that goes along with it.

I’m also a fan of Oglebay Fest, a fall ritual that takes us to Oglebay Park every October.  I almost never buy anything, but it’s entertaining going from booth to booth checking out the newest arts and crafts.  Mostly, though, I go for the food.  I make it a point to get a steak hoagie smothered in cheese sauce with a side of home fried potatoes.  As if that’s not bad enough, I’m pretty sure I’m addicted to kettle corn.  I always leave the park with a big bag–big enough to feed me, my wife and the girls for the whole week.

There are other things that make fall worthwhile to me.  I enjoy the colors of fall, especially the splashes of yellow, red and orange leaves on every hillside.  I like bonfires, weenie roasts and s’mores.  But let’s be honest, who doesn’t?  And, of course, fall wouldn’t be fall without Thanksgiving.  Fall reminds us of our earthly gifts and blessings.  For me, Thanksgiving is the high point of fall–a time to remember God and his faithfulness in our lives.

But fall can be a bit of a drag too.

Let’s start with those beautiful, colorful leaves.  Eventually, they drop to the ground.  That means somebody gets stuck raking them up. Ugh!  What a horrible job!   Unfortunately, I have a giant pin oak tree in my front yard.  It drops half of its leaves in the fall, and then drops the rest in the early spring.  That means I end up raking the leaves twice a year.

I’ve blogged before about the pumpkin invasion that happens every fall.  Pumpkin food.  Pumpkin drinks.  Pumpkin everything!  I know there are many pumpkin lovers among you, but I’m not one of them.  I eat one piece of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and that’s it.  I’m done.  Thankfully, fall also means pecan pie which, in my mind, helps offset the terrible pumpkin onslaught.

Fall also brings cold weather.  It’s not really the cold that bothers me.  It’s the constant changes in the weather–hot, then cold, then hot again.  You don’t know what to wear from one day to the next.  This kind of “revolving door” weather also plays havoc on my immune system.  It seems like every fall I get a bad cold or one of those long, drawn out flu bugs.  Get the Excedrin and the nasal spray ready!

So…

What about you?  What earns a spot on your list of “best” things about fall?  Or the “worst” things?

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