Dig the autumn colors this year

This fall has been spectacular. And I don't mean the elections, I mean climate-wise. Have you looked at the trees lately? I mean, in southeastern Pennsylvania? They're brilliant and gorgeous. All neon shades of red, purple, and orange. Waiting for a bus two days ago, I saw a tree that was yellow on the north side and green on the south side. Wild.

We had a mild summer -- seems to me we had only two nasty heat waves, and they were both brief. Then late summer and early fall were dry, so voilà: spectacular colors on the trees. What I remember from last year, the leaves went from green to brown, and a lot of them didn't even fall. The difference this year is just wonderful.

And did you notice that the leaves didn't really start to fall until the latter half of this week? I was walking across Washington Square on Monday morning, and the pavement was clear. But by the end of the week, we were scuffling our feet through a few layers of leaf litter.

It was as if the trees were waiting for the election to be over, too.