
Where some people get a pep in their step when Spring rolls around, it's the fall season that gets me jazzed. I begin looking forward to the leaves changing their colors, though it won't happen until well into September, if not October. I start thinking about what horror movies I might be watching, and when I might want to watch them. I start rooting around in my CD collection for things like "Closed on Account of Rabies: Tales of Edgar Allen Poe" to play in my car (when it's time, of course. Several weeks from now, closer to October. At least mid-September, certainly no earlier than September 1st. Except...maybe...just once or twice, because, really, how much talk radio can a guy stand?). And although it's much too soon to be thinking about Halloween decorations (at least it is according to my wife, whose eye-rolls over the matter have grown increasingly extravagant over the years), I will occasionally find myself looking at a wall or a shelf and thinking: Yeah...maybe the skeleton there this year.
Most importantly, my creative impulses go into overtime, and I simply can't wait to get to writing or drawing. It's as if a dam has given way somewhere in my mind, and I'm flooded with ideas. I've long since given up searching for a first cause, or assigning either nature or nurture to it. It simply is. A part of who I am. Always has been. Always will be, world without end.
I know there are others like me out there. I've seen you. And you've seen me. We've grinned at each other over the (for now) modest selection of plastic pumpkins that have suddenly appeared in stores, filling in the spaces previously occupied by summer fun and back-to-school displays. Like me, you nod in appreciation of the Halloween-themed memes that have suddenly begun popping up online like mushrooms in a dark, haunted forest. And like me, you've begun thinking about where the boxes are. The ones with the decorations in them. You don't need them just yet, you just want to know where they are. Who knows, maybe you'll go through them, see if there's anything needs replacing. Like candles. You'll always need more candles. And batteries, of course. Fluid for the fog machine. And maybe it's time to go ahead and get that metal haunted house candle holder, since you're getting candles anyway...
Peace,
Chris