December 9, 2016, North Central Florida

The morning starts off cold — well, cold for North Central Florida — low 40’s. After several days of humid, unseasonably warm temperatures and even a thunderstorm earlier in the week, the cooler morning air is refreshing. I notice, for the first time, that the leaves on the trees in front of our home are carpeting the lawn with not one left hanging from a branch. The trees look empty and tired as though the summer heat was too much for them to bear. The grapefruit tree at the corner of our neighbor’s yard is heavy with quickly ripening fruit. The owners who lived there when we moved in 12 years ago gorged on their lovely grapefruits and generously gave away the abundant overflow of fruit. The neighbors after the first ones did not like grapefruit and were not friendly enough to pass them along to those who did. They allowed them to ripen and fall to the ground to rot where they landed or to roll down the street where they languished and rotted in a gutter or were smashed by the tires of passing cars, the sweet citrus smell heavy in the humid air. The newest owners have yet to move in although they purchased the house more than two months ago. I hope they like grapefruit.