秋风起 (w English)

At 7:20 am this morning, I was downstairs in the kitchen to prepare for the breakfast. It was a cloudy morning, and the sun was nowhere to see.  So I rolled up the window blinds to let the air and light in. Then I turned on the faucet for washing. The water was warm. For a moment, I thought I might have accidentally shifted the faucet to heat position. But I didn’t.   All of a sudden, I remember the old winter days back home, when I had to handwash clothes by the well.  It is the warm well water that mollified the otherwise harsh winter washing.  As each bucketed water from the well was lifted, on the water surface arose some thinly steam, quickly vaporizing in the cold wind.

 

I parked the car across the street of our office building, as I have been doing this for a month now. Walking by the towering trees lined on both sides of road, underneath which is strewn with fall leaves, I felt a bit chilled.

 

I was at the office by the time the wall clock showed 8:50. After logging in, I took the cup and headed to the kitchen. On the way I met Lynn, a plump lady in HR, and I greeted her good morning. Her brisk response of “Happy Monday and Happy the first day of Autumn” reminded me that today is the first day of Autumn according to North America’s calendar. It is really an equinox day, when day and night are of same length. And it looks like that the sun knows that well, hiding behind and having a lazy morning, while the wind takes the lead in embracing us.

 

The sun finally broke out around 10:22 by the time I am writing this short journal. It's forecast that there will be Santa Ana wind tomorrow, and possible rains towards the end of the week. Will see.