Ostrich Weekly Forecast: Oct 21
A few more weeks of autumn frenzy.
People talk about spring fever, that antsy feeling we owe to our various ancestors, both human and further long back, a mood divided between the urge to nest and the urge to migrate. I don't know if we have a word for the autumn equivalent, but it's a jumpy season, too. Call it autumn frenzy if you want to. We feel the contradictory urges to fill our root cellars and build our winter beds, and to leave our homes behind, setting out on southward journeys. If you saw the squirrels in my yard, you'd know what I mean. They're running this way, changing their minds and running that way, running back, chittering at me for the impudence to watch them bury their walnuts.
Our weatherman says we have a few more weeks of frenzy in front of us, peaking in early November, and then easing with the certainty of late fall storms. He hasn't yet made a prediction about the sort of winter we can expect, but he says it wouldn't be a bad idea to tack down any loose shingles.
