Today I Learned...

Today I learned that the end of summer brings the end of baseball, the closing of patios and the beginning of the school year.  It also brings fall.  Autumn in Vancouver can be beautiful.  Everything looks refreshed.  Grass turns green again, the smoldering heat is gone and the leaves slowly start to change. 

But the down side to all this beauty is the rain.  By the end of October, we've long forgotten the long sunny days and glorious sunshine and have become re-accustomed to short days with dreary skies. It's really the first big rain of the season that kills me.  Once the clouds set in and the first few drops hit the ground, every driver in Vancouver suddenly forgets the rules of the road and absolute mayhem breaks out all over the Lower Mainland, gridlock ensues.  What used to be a 30 minute drive become a 45 minute commute and god help you if you have to go to the bathroom.  People drive slow when they don't need to and speed when they shouldn't.  It always seems like the busiest time of year for accidents, inconvenient construction (or deconstruction) and stupid people.  Believe me, they are all over the place!  Oh how I long for November....

All things considered, none of it is as bad as the first snowfall of the year.  That causes mass panic for those not even on the road....