Today is Sunday, September 23 and there are only 60 days until Thanksgiving. I know! Where does the time go? It seems like it was only a couple months ago that it was the 4^th of July … oh wait, it was only a couple months ago. Never mind! Today we remember the birthdays of Euripides, Mickey Rooney and Bruce Springsteen. On this day in 1642 Harvard College in Cambridge, MA held its first commencement, in 1806 Lewis & Clark returned to St Louis from the Pacific Northwest and in 1962 New York City’s Philharmonic Hall (renamed Avery Fisher Hall) opened as the first unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In Puerto Rico it is Grito de Lares Day, in Saudi Arabia it is Unification Day and in the US it is Good Neighbor Day, National Snack Stick Day and National Great American Pot Pie Day.

For those of you who are not aware, yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of fall. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the beginning of fall, with daylight hours continuing to shorten until the winter solstice in December. Despite the fact that the pumpkin spice latte debuted this year in August, fall actually didn’t begin until yesterday. According to The Weather Channel, the autumnal equinox happened at 9:54 p.m. EDT, marking the official end of summer and the beginning of fall. During that minute, the sun crossed the Earth’s equator from the Northern Hemisphere into the Southern Hemisphere and day and night lasted the exact same amount of time — 12 hours — everywhere across the world.

So why does this happen? Throughout the year, the earth tilts on its axis at a diagonal away from or toward the sun, causing the change in seasons. During the equinox, it becomes momentarily perfectly perpendicular, meaning the sun’s rays pass directly over the equator. Following that minute, the Northern hemisphere begins to tilt away from the sun leading to shorter days and cooler temperatures. It also causes a shift in the jet stream, which affects weather patterns. Equinoxes happen twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, while the solstices occur once in the summer and once in the winter. During an equinox, the sun is at the closest distance to the equator, while during a solstice it is the furthest distance away. I hope that gives you something to talk about during half time today.

Many of you have heard all about the hurricane that hit the Carolinas recently. I thought that the pre- storm coverage and post storm coverage were interesting. Pre- storm, everyone was saying how they had been through this before and they were just going to hunker down and hang tough. Post storm these were the people who had to have rescuers come and save them as their houses flooded. I can’t help but wonder what they thought “This is going to be a very dangerous storm. We cannot promise that anyone can come and help you if you are in trouble,” meant. Sure, you have a generator, but it is of no help when it is sitting in three feet of water and unable to function.

What was it that these people were trying to accomplish? Do they realize that the floods will still get into their house, even if they stay? It isn’t like the water comes rushing in and then, realizing that someone is home, decides to avoid a house. These are the same people who decide that they can drive their sedan through a few feet of water at 50 mph and then realize that maybe that was a bad idea when the car stops running and becomes a boat floating on the river.

More interesting were the people who were complaining because they did not get hit as hard as they expected. They were upset because they went out and bought water and other supplies (usually milk, bread and toilet paper) and then didn’t get hit with the devastation that had been forecasted. I think if state officials really cared, they would have manufactured some devastating floods and wind so that these people would feel justified in being prepared. This just proves that some people are never happy. They would complain that the storm destroyed their property and their home, but then also complain because it didn’t. These are the ones who make the rest of us shake our heads in amazement all the time.

I read something recently that made me wonder where I stood on this particular spectrum. According to what I saw, the average annual coffee consumption of the American adult is 26.7 gallons or over 400 cups. I decided to do the math to see how I come out on the consumption scale. I have four cups of coffee per day, on average. Sometimes more and rarely less, but the average is four. That means that by ten days into April I have consumed the American  average mentioned earlier. For those of you who are wondering, my total average, based on four cups a day is 1,460 cups per year. That breaks down to 113.75 gallons, assuming a standard ten ounce cup. As you may have guessed, I like coffee. I also get to see a number of bathrooms since I do not actually buy coffee, I just rent it. The average American adult needs to step up his/her game and catch up to those of us who are serious about coffee.

This week our fact tells us that to burn off one plain M&M candy, we need to walk the full length of a football field. Based on that, most of us would probably need to walk to California around the holidays. Maybe we could start a special day in January, just after the new year starts. Everyone could gather at local football fields and start walking back and forth. It could be called the Great Candy Walk Off. We could have music, special shirts, hot cider and maybe left over red and green M&M’s.