eat light:

i don't have anything earth-shattering to say today, except for this random bit: i have decided that autumn and spring are my favorite seasons, because they are liminal or transitional. spring is winter becoming summer; autumn is summer becoming winter; winter and summer are the extremes, the inflection points where the temperature and day-length curves (when plotted as a function of time) change in slope from + to - or from - to +. (i've been fascinated by inflection points since i first learned how to solve for them in first-year calculus.) by contrast, if you were to plot the rate of change (i.e. plot the slope of either of the aforementioned curves as a function of time), then the inflection points would occur during spring or autumn. this is not a big revelation or anything...it's kind of contained within our definitions of the seasons...but it's still fun to shift among the various representational frameworks we can use to express the concept of seasons and annual cycles.

i'm not sure which i prefer, though, autumn or spring. fortunately, i am of the mindset that when it's autumn, i prefer autumn; and when it's spring, i prefer spring--which is better (imo) than preferring spring in autumn and autumn in spring. this is arguable, of course. is it better to prefer where you are, or to yearn for what's to come (or what's past)? i couldn't say. i also wouldn't want to oversimplify.

this doesn't mean that i dislike either summer or winter, though. au contraire, i enjoy them both very much. i just happen to prefer milder weather, along with the aesthetics associated with the botanical transformations of budding and senescence (as contrasted to and alternating with full bloom and dormancy).

that's all. carry on.