October Funk

With the exception of 2007 (which included a fabulous party at the Beach Chalet in San Francisco), October has been an unkind month for me over the years and decades. I have no theory why that is so but it seems like too many negative vibes hit my own personal airwaves in October. Too many friends, family and acquaintances, or their pets, have met their maker (assuming there is one)…too much slips from my grasp with too many “postponements until a later date” and too many failures of resolve to get over it, and my descent into curmudgeon-hood accelerates.

One would think a winter month like February would be the bad month to bad mouth but I kind of welcome the cold toes and the crackly frosty moustache and even the anticipation of an “escape” week or two into a warmer climate during the winter season. Although fall weather can certainly be physically nice it really is the end of something rather than a beginning. The only gardening I do (physically taxing and joyfully satisfying), although nicely muddy and primordial, it is all in preparation for spring…the rest is just so much mulch.

Wandering the beach in the fall is bracing and sometimes exhilarating but in October it’s also lonely and the seagulls are just annoyed at my presence. They know I have no bread in my pockets. Just like my 401(k).