What do you celebrate when you don’t celebrate anything? In Austin, it’s that first cold front.

Fall is supposed to be from September to November. Not here. Not Austin. Here, summer dominates from March to September. Sometimes, it doesn’t start feeling like fall until mid October, much like this year. That’s 183 days of temperatures reaching as high as 111 degrees.

As someone who has lived here my whole life, the very few months we get for fall weather is bliss. Rain or shine, fall is beautiful in Texas simply because it happens.

Apparently, that’s not true for many people. Most tend to look forward to the holidays that fill the fall calendars. Honestly, the only benefit I ever get from the holidays is the chance to stay home all day and enjoy the weather. Halloween doesn’t even give me that.

This year Halloween falls on a Wednesday night. A Wednesday. Thanks, but I think I’d rather stay home. Dressing up and going out sounds like it would be fun, if it weren’t for one night only.

I also don’t have the time or energy to go out of my way and decorate my place or go buy candy for those few trick-or-treaters that dare approach my house which is (obviously) not interested in participating.

I will give Halloween this: movie marathons. These I can enjoy on a Wednesday night, or any night.

It boils down to this: I grew up without Halloween. I don’t hold it to such a high regard because it was never a big part of my life. This holiday is great…for other people. Feel free to go on and on about it, but what I enjoy is the cold and rain: the true indicators of fall.

This is meditation weather.

The sound of rain hitting my windshield while I drive is soothing; it’s better than music. The water literally washes away my other thoughts.

During summer, all I can think about when I drive are the things I have to do and the blazing sun that’s determined on setting us all aflame. It didn’t help that my AC was broken this year, so yes, I was the one who wished for this cold storm to come.

Now when I drive, I think about one thing: the rain.

The simplicity of this thought is wonderful. I don’t bother thinking about all that I have to do. I just focus on what I’m doing right then.

Don’t get me wrong, continuous downpours can become a hassle (floods are a problem), but it’s how I know fall is here; not seeing a bunch of strangers dressed up as monsters or dogs or whatever else is trending this year, asking other strangers for candy on the streets.

So, I’m going to enjoy this weather as much as I can now before the universe realizes it’s not 100 degrees in Texas and sends the sun to finish us off for good.