Autumn Almost

There are no pumpkin patches or haunted houses or corn mazes or even multicolored leaves in Saudi Arabia this time of year.  Autumn just does not exist here.  The weather has started to cool down, but that means 80s and 90s instead of 90s and 100s.  Most of the kids here will not dress up in funny costumes and come knocking on my door trying to rob me of my sweets.  The 31st of October will come and go, and I will actually be spending the holiday somewhere in airspace between France and Saudi Arabia.  But the other night, I just couldn't handle it anymore, I felt homesick and sad.  I haven't seen Fall in five years.  The past three have been in Saudi Arabia, and the one before that was Bermuda, and the one before that was Costa Rica.  It has been too long oh' temperate climes.  So the other night, I cycled myself to the local grocery store and bought the most pumpkin-like things I could find (largish squash) and we carved them.  We scooped out the guts.  Put the seeds in the oven.  Made little faces on the veggies.  Put some candles inside and lit them.  With the lights turned off and the smell of partially burnt squash flesh in the air, it almost almost could have been a autumn night in Saudi Arabia.