October Hessel

We all know, that is, we baseball fans know, that October baseball is special. I can tell you that October Hessel is special too.

To be sure, I enjoy it. It has its own charm compared to the summer. But the days are shorter and the change more stunning because you don't notice the days getting shorter quite as profoundly in the day to day world where you live. It's as if sunset were suddenly 7 PM at home in late September. You're here in July, then you're here the first weekend of October. The difference is striking.

I was star gazing from the front porch at 6 AM today. I drove 'into town', Cedarville, all of three miles away for a coffee a few minutes later. There wasn't even a hint of dawn as I ventured east, the brights on as I drove.

The Sun is lower in the southern horizon this time of year, and for lack of a better term it seems unfocused, as through sent through a diffuser of sorts. Yet it's fierce enough to drive me off the porch by Noon whereas I can read there comfortably until around 2:30 in June. Then there's the Halloween decorations, which feel really incongruent to area. Neat, yes. But incongruent where you aren't a native. 

But, it's Hessel. Even though I will spend today working (telecommuting is another weird thing about October Hessel) you can't beat that. When I close the laptop, I'm Up North. I can't say that at home.

Horses in Hessel

As I sat on the porch in Hessel in the wee hours of Monday morning, somewhere around 4 O'clock, I picked up the clip-clop of hooves. It sounded as though a horse were coming up Center Street across from the house.

Then I realized that there was more than one. Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop, almost in unison but not quite. "People are riding their horses in Hessel ahead of dawn?' I wondered.

I stayed quiet and unmoving. Within a minute there appeared three deer, lazily walking up Center. They stopped at the stop sign as though they knew they should. Then they meandered across to our yard and made tiny leaps over the stone fence, to wander past and up the back driveway of the Presbyterian Church next door without a care in the world.

I half wished I had had my phone to try for a picture. But I didn't want to startle them, and it was a very pleasant experience simply watching those deer saunter on by in the nocturnal atmosphere.