Might as well face it: fall has fallen. That sounds so bleak, if not dangerous; it just struck me as the flip side of spring has sprung. Seriously, the clues were everywhere this weekend: pumpkins, apples, Halloween happenings like those tours at Fort Adams, green reeds turned brown waving fuzzy feathery tops. I even saw a fuzzy bear ... wooly bear?? Whatever you want to call it, I hadn't seen (or noticed) one in the longest time. And after a long, gray, wonderful-if-windless Sunday on the water — I had the good fortune of taking part in a vintage sailboat race, which ended up being more of a drifting match, off Wickford — there were steamed mussels and relaxed company and cider (and rum), all of which helped fend off the chill.
Some seem to welcome the chill — they're prepared for it, anyway. Others fight it at every turn. In this case, in Wickford, there was a simultaneous warm chill (as in a mellow mood) and cool chill (meaning a nip in the air). Then, back in Newport, where both air & atmosphere felt different — that's not a value judgment; I'm just saying — as I was walking from the wharf up the hill past the Pelham toward home, I ran into something that gave me a chill of a third variety ...
The occasion was the Sexy Zombie Freak Show, a fundraiser sponsored by Curl Up and Dye (is that the best name for a hair salon or what??).
The occasion was the Sexy Zombie Freak Show, a fundraiser sponsored by Curl Up and Dye (is that the best name for a hair salon or what??).
