Sam is not happy.
Oh, she’s looks comfortable. And don’t get her wrong, she loves a walk in the crisp autumn woods, a brisk dance around the neighborhood. But here in the Chicago suburbs, the temperatures have dipped some 10-15 degrees below normals for this time of year. There’s already been some snow. We’ve had some night temperatures in the 20s.
It’s only early November.
And then there’s this:
Two houses in the neighborhood—with Halloween just barely out of the shadows— bursting with Christmas celebration. At one home three carved pumpkins are still decaying on the front porch.
So, with Mother Nature and and my good neighbors pushing and dragging the rest of us into the season of hibernation far earlier than most of us would like, Sam is preparing in her favorite chair by the window, an old sweatshirt pulled up around her, destine to acquiesce to what has come and will come. All she needs is a little hot cider, if she liked hot cider.
Yes, we don’t want to rush the season or the days of our lives. There is always something beautiful in the change. Still, Sam and I wonder: Does the shift have to be so harsh.
* * *
Walks with Sam: A Man, a Dog, and a Season of Awakening is due out late summer 2020 from John Hunt Publishing/Roundfire, UK.
Walks With Sam 
We’re starting to see some Christmas decorations in our neighborhood already. It just started snowing here too. Maybe we should just skip November!
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I LOVE November. It’s the season of reexamination, adjusting to change. Don’t you wish we could just slow…it…down?
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Yes. We find November is passing by too fast, and snow has started too early. (Tonight we’re bracing for snow again.) My ghostwriter says it’s not officially winter until we have a big blizzard, or Christmas, which ever arrives first. In the meantime, we can still get a few days of “Indian summer.”
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Aaawwkk! Neighbors like that would make me want to shove a red hot poker in my eye. Please tell Sam we sympathize with him and apologize for sending our last 3 snowstorms and cold temps easterly. You got lucky though when that Arctic front blew through we had some single digits so 20’s seem like a heat wave. Stay warm and hopefully Sam will experience more fun adventures once it warms up. We’re back in the upper 40’s & 50’s which surely will head your way.
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Yes! 27 degrees when I left the house this morning. But 44/45 this weekend. A little reprieve for everyone. 🙂
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