Stormy Weather

September is often a difficult month for me. A time of transition and stormy weather, inside and out.

The days are shorter, the sun lower. Even if the temperature climbs now and then, the warmth doesn’t reach my apartment on a high floor in Riverdale.

September 26th marked the fall equinox this year, 8:05 EST, when the sun crossed above the earth’s celestial equator, heading south. As we lose the equilibrium between day and night, sunlight and darkness, it’s no wonder I feel unstable. I’ve always been hypersensitive. My body (my inner weather and spirit), responds to changes in barometric pressure, to light, to full moons and new moons. Having been born on June 30th I am undoubtedly a moon child. As September 22nd approached this year, I learned this Equinox marks the longest summer recorded in recent times, and how future summers will be shorter. Even worse for me, and I’m sure others, this winter will be longer and dark as a result.

But I shouldn’t complain because I have so much to be grateful for. September is typically a rich month for me, but it can also be stormy at times. For example. last weekend a nor’easter pummeled New Jersey, New York, and further up the coast. This is not the normal season for nor’easters. I knew it was going to be cold and I would be chilly in my apartment, so I thought… space heater!

I borrowed one from my brother, and just in time because sure enough, the nor’easter hit as predicted.

As I looked out from my apartment at the Hudson River and New Jersey, all I could see were grey stormy clouds, trees bending wildly in the wind, and rain pounding the windows, which lasted for days. It was freezing, so I plugged in the space heater, which eventually warmed the room. But after just a few hours, I lost power throughout most of the apartment.

Was it the wind? The heavy rain? To my dismay, the culprit turned out to be that old space heater. It tripped a circuit breaker!

Now, isn’t that a perfect ending to September?