The first hints of color change started about a week and a half ago, and they were just hints if you paid attention to the undergrowth.
By Friday, I found this true burst of color in Indiana on an unknown back road near Willow Slough.
Oh change comes, all right. And over the past week, I had plenty of chances to watch it come.
By some quirk of scheduling, since Friday, I have driven around Lake and Newton counties in Indiana; and Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Iroquois, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Livingston and Will counties in Illinois.
The change comes. Color turns by a splash here, and a splash there.
But the fall sign I am most interested in, corn harvest begins slowly. Saw a combine lumbering in Indiana, a big picked field in Livingston County and a picked field in Kendall County.
Usually, I find the dying colors of the fall a sure sign a mood swing will build, but for some reason I don't this year.
Maybe I've gained more sense with more years, or simply have learned to take the time to notice. And enjoy.
Some are born with that sense, some have to learn it from their kids and like you, it comes with age. I've noticed it over the last 12 or 13 years, you don't laugh and make fun of me anywhere near as much.
It would have been nice to know some of this when I still young and full of it.