Fall is in the Air

Fall is coming... I can feel it in the mornings and I can smell it in the air.  The days aren't as hot, and I find myself wearing sweatshirts and blue jeans to research.  The Packers played a few nights ago in their first preseason game, and I know the college football season kicks off in just a few short weeks.  Its fall again, and I absolutely love it.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what it is that makes me so fond of the fall.  Yes, football is my favorite sport, and I do enjoy the cooler weather (though I am aware it will get warm again tomorrow).  Still, there's just something sp

ecial about this time of year.  The world feels new again... the air crisp and clean, and it seems everyone has a fresh start at things.  Maybe that's just an artifact from numerous years of school, college, and now graduate study, but I still feel there is more hope in the fall, and more willingness to give everything a new chance.

Fall brings a lot of great memories too.  Technically, my birthday is in the fall (though I got a test question wrong in Spanish when I wrote my birth month, November, was in the winter... apparently it only feels like winter in Wisconsin).  More importantly, hunting season is in the fall.  Its not so much that I like the killing, or even that my family needs the meat (we could buy it like most other families), but more that it gave me an opportunity to spend time with my dad and to be outside.  There's nothing quite like walking down a woods road with ones father, with all the leaves turning colors, carrying a break-action shotgun given as a gift by a grandfather.  It didn't even matter if we got -- or even saw -- any birds.  Once we finished the morning hunting, we'd get back to the truck and turn the radio on to listen to the Badger game.  It seems those days, they were just starting to get good as it was the beginning of the Barry Alvarez era.  

Another great memory of the fall is boot camp.  Rather, graduation from boot camp.  That year, my sum experience of the fall was when I was on the rifle range with my platoon at Camp Pendleton.  The first week of rifelry was spent sitting on aluminum bleachers, learning about trajectory, windage, and proper shooting form and technique.  What I remember most vividly was the small tree about 300 yards in the background, and watching it change color each day that week.  That was my fall that year.  Boot camp ended for me on October 29, 2004.  I flew back to Wisconsin that night with my family.  Leaving the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and watching it disappear as the plane banked towards home was an amazing feeling.  

While I was home on boot leave, I went down to visit my buddy in Madison -- where I would later attend college.  I remember him taking me to my first Badger game ever.  I don't remember who we played or what the score was.  All I remember was that absurd grin that must have crossed my face as the student section spontaneously burst into some hilarious off-colored cheer at the expense of the visiting team.  Its not only me... it happens to everyone the first time they experience historic Camp Randall stadium as the students see it.  Its amazing how fond I have grown of Madison.

September 10, 2006 was when I finished Ironman Wisconsin.  That was a brutal day, and I suspect my pain-induced delirium may be the reason I seem to have so few memories from it.  I remember my roommates threw a house party the night before (thanks again, by the way), and that I was extre

mely nervous as I arrived at the Monona Terrace at 4:00 am to stage my gear and get ready for the event.  I went to the bathroom 5 times in the 45 minutes leading up to the start of the swim, which becomes an even more impressive feat when one considers I was wearing a wet suit.  I got very good at getting that thing off and on in little time.  The year I competed was cold -- highs in the low 60's and rainy -- but we still had the largest group start in Ironman history with over 1700 competitors.  I remember the waves breaking over me as I swam.  I remember freezing in the rain on my bike.  By the time 

I got back to begin the marathon, I seriously considered quitting... then got up, wrapped a safety blanket around my shoulders, and started running.  The first 13.1 miles went pretty easily.  They had the course going throughout much of campus and the capital area, which I was very familiar with.  I ran one block past my ho

use, in fact.  As I wrapped up that first loop, my dad (in cowboy boots and carrying a coffee mug of whiskey & 7-up) ran for a few blocks with me to make sure I was still lucid.  The second loop was less pleasant, but as I rounded the corner by the White Horse Inn and headed down State Street, I knew it was almost over.  Everyone was cheering, and it didn't even matter that I was broken and running on fumes.  I still managed a fast clip down to the finish and was smiling for the pictures.  I didn't remember that we walked home or that my roommate bought me a sub until someone reminded me several weeks later.  I remember crying though, having been overwhelmed with exhaustion and emotion.  Truly an epic moment in my life.

Fall is, also, when my buddy Pete -- the one who took me to my first Badger game -- proposed to his girlfriend Annie.  She said yes... and I just found out.  It puts a nice exclamation point on my story.  Congrat's Pete, and best of luck Annie!

I guess fall is my season.  I love winter -- snow and skiing truly are joys of mine -- and I like how the world greens back up during the spring.  I even enjoy the deep green colors of summer, and grabbing a cold beer on a really hot day.  But that said, they can't compete with the fall, and like I said, the fall is coming... and I can't wait!