Seasonally Affected Disorders

Labor Day has come and gone and with it, the unofficial end of summer. Of course if you go by the calendar, summer still has about three weeks left, but that’ll be gone before you know it, so we might as well get ready to bid summer a tearful adieu.

Fall is, for the most part, a pretty miserable time of year. Yeah, September and part of October isn’t too bad, but by the time mid to late fall rolls around, this season is shot. The days keep getting shorter and shorter as the season progresses, and we are soon bogged down in November gray.

Okay, if everything goes right in early and middle fall, the deciduous forests really put on a show. The red of the maples and the golden yellows of the oaks, for example, can really dress up the place.

But that’s not guaranteed. For instance, if the season is too dry, the leaves will just turn brown. Too much rain will foul everything up, too, in its own way. There is a happy middle ground, but these conditions are very rarely present. Still, we can always hope for what we seldom ever get; a chance to take some nice pictures as the leaves turn color, before they fall off and need raking.

The changing of the seasons means more in the mountains than they do in other places. Depending on where your house is located, the beginning of fall means you are either entering a prolonged period in the shadows, or you are envied and probably hated because you’ll be getting some much desired sunshine.

Because the sun begins to set further to the south starting on September 23^rd, it will shine back to the north. If your house in on the north side, congratulations, you’ll be in the sun, while your neighbors across the holler from you, those unfortunate souls on the south side, will be in the shade.

This doesn’t mean too much in the beginning, but by late fall and early winter when the snows begin to fall and the temperatures begin to drop, that’s when you can really begin to dislike your neighbors who are sitting so smugly on their north side property.

Once the sun does come back out after a cold snap, the poor south sider will still have to contend with all that snow and ice because his property is sitting in the shadows. And he has to sit and watch those north siders basking in the warmth of a sun that is obviously prejudiced. Why else would you have to wait till spring to thaw out?

There is a middle ground here, too. For instance, your house might sit facing east or west instead of on the north or south side of the holler. For those whose houses sit facing the east, you will get sunshine in the morning and shade in the afternoon. If your house sits facing the west, reverse that.

My own house faces the west, so I am not too unhappy. It’s not like I’m on the south side with no sun, but not getting the sun until the afternoon is pretty depressing in itself. Not as depressing as having to sit in the shade all afternoon, though, like those poor souls whose houses face the east.