Fall Back.....

Well the weather has been getting some what cooler the last couple of weeks here in S.W. Missouri. We're already over half way through the month of September, with October not far behind! Fall is just around the corner, my favorite time of the year!! :) I all ways did like fall the best, the temperatures are all ways cooler, so I don't get as hot, as quickly out side. Oddly, my allergies seem to be at their least during the fall, you would thing it would be the other way around?! I also like the weather! Day time temps. in the low 60's, cloudy skies, a slight breeze, and a very fine mist in the air, the smell of wood being burned in fireplaces along the block, and the turning of the leaves!!

I was spoiled in that last respect till we moved at the end of my Freshman year in High School. We had a massive Silver Maple tree in our front yard through out all my childhood, and early adolescents. The deep reds, yellows, and oranges that it's leaves would turn were amazing. Falls in which we had an abundance of rain fall made the colors even deeper, and more vivid!! We all ways had piles of Silver Maple leaves all over the yard, that was almost never raked up till after Halloween! I love to hear the sound of kids crunching the leaves as they walk up to the house on Halloween!

Halloween has always been my favorite Holiday since I could remember. Christmas may have been once in ancient history, but I'm sure after one or two with most of my family, my toddler brain switched to Halloween! I loved dressing up in costumes, and going trick or treating til I reached a certain age. After that I loved decorating the house, and handing out candy to the little kids! We used to have so many kids at our old house, we lived maybe 5-6 blocks from the elementary school I went to. We usually had at least 75-100 kids each year, and once had almost 150!! Since we moved, the most I think we ever had was 30-40. :( The year before last year at my grandma's house I think we had almost 50! Last year I didn't get to hand out candy, but this year I will be making up for it hopefully! I have all ready asked off for that day, and I need to stake out the Halloween shops that have started popping up on the south side of town. Halloween is on a Friday this year, so I am hoping that there will be many more trick or treaters than there has been the last several years!

I haven't decided yet what this Sunday's NASA post will be about. I'm thinking the Space Shuttle? In October there will be a mission that is, once again, supposed to be the final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. I wish that NASA would decide to continue the use of Hubble beyond what they have decided on. I realise that they want to put newer space telescopes in orbit, but none of the new proposals will cover everything that Hubble can do! There will be a large part of the visible light spectrum that will not be detectable be any of these new telescopes currently in the works. Why can't we cut back on Hubble service, but still continue to every once in a while upgrade Hubble, to continue with it's coverage of the entire visible light spectrum, and beyond!!