Every Midwesterner knows the feeling.
The one that hits you right around Halloween. You step outside and the air has that strange mix of warmth and warning. The sun still carries a little kindness, but the shadows are sharpening their teeth. You smell the leaves turning brittle, the first backyard firepit of the season, and the faint trace of winter waiting around the corner.
This is the final exhale before we hunker down. Tomorrow the clocks will fall back, and the afternoon will disappear faster than the CTA Christmas train in the chilly fog. The park benches will empty, the bikes will hang in garages, and everyone will start talking about soup.
But tonight, tonight belongs to the ghosts, the kids, the parents with beers in the stroller pouch and the people who know enough to stand on their porch a few minutes longer just to feel that last warm breath.
Raise your glass to the final ember of October. Enjoy it, Chalkheads. By morning, November will be on our doorstep and winter will be awakening.
Hanukkah and Christmas are just around the corner. Maybe the last holiday season celebrated in the five boroughs that mourn annually in September.
Tomorrow is rugby day in Chicago! Welcome home Ireland and New Zealand.......
