Fellow Rotarians,

This is Version 2 of this week’s President’s Message. Apparently, the newsletter editor rejected Version 1. He was probably correct in doing so, but we’ll leave it at that.

As I write this on Sunday afternoon, I’m sitting on the screened porch watching boats and skiers go by on the lake, smoking a cigar and drinking a lemonade. Yes, lemonade. For now.

There’s just enough of a breeze today to make it feel different. Not cool, exactly — this is still North Carolina in early September — but enough to suggest that fall might actually be out there somewhere, making its way toward us. And I am ready for it.

Apparently, we’re heading into a very strong El Niño this year, which has already produced predictions of a wetter and potentially cooler winter for North Carolina. I’ve even seen the word “snow” thrown around, which is all I needed to hear.

I realize this may put me in the minority, but I love cold weather. I like the gray skies. I like bare trees. I like the kind of day when it gets dark early, the fireplace is going, and there is absolutely no compelling reason to leave the house. Add snow and I become downright irritatingly happy.

Maybe it’s because every season seems to give us permission to do something different. Summer tells us to get outside and go. Fall reminds us that things are changing. Winter gives us permission to slow down a little.

And perhaps that’s what I’m enjoying most about this afternoon — that first subtle reminder that another season is coming.

We spend so much of our lives looking ahead to the next meeting, the next event, the next obligation, the next thing that needs to get done that it’s remarkably easy to miss the season we’re actually standing in.

So, for now, I’m going to sit here, enjoy the breeze, watch the boats, finish my cigar and my perfectly innocent lemonade...

And wait patiently for winter.

Well, reasonably patiently.

Until Wednesday, may something good happen because you were there.

— Ross