In writing this month’s column, I wanted to try an entrancement. I waited until the final hour of putting together an article that would be 600 words long and come just from the top of my head without notes or relying to write about another article on my younger years or something that meant a lot to me. So here we go.

I have already written 67 words and have 533 words to go.

I notice that the weather has already started to turn cooler. The fall has started early this year. Some of the people who predict the weather say that we will have an early winter that well be colder than expected..

I am thinking of going west early this year. I am what the people in Arizona call a “Snow Bird.” These are people who go west for the winter usually in late December. They stay until April or May and then come east again for the spring and summer months.

I did not start going west until I was in my middle 60s. I fell in love with the West when I was just a kid who went to a lot of western movies.

I now have reached 203 words with 497 words to go.

I love baseball and I thought that the third team to come to Washington would do the trick, Washington would make it to the World Series. The team has come close twice and this year was out of the running. I am still hopeful that we will get there soon. At least the team is not stuck in the basement like they were in the 50s and 60s.

Now the football team on the other hand looks like they might have a good season, Go Skins!

I now stand at 300 words. I forgot to mention that not only did I want to write 600 words off the top of my head, I also wanted to see how long it would take me to do it. I have noticed as I get older that time flies and I have written about it before, but as we slide into October I think time to me has set a new world record. Before you can say welcome to 2016 it will be here.

I still love old movies and look at at least one a day. The latest one was ‘Casablanca’ with Humphrey Bogart. I like this move a lot because it came out the year I was born–1942. The movie gives you an idea of what the styles were like and what the cars looked like and a little of the music and what people did in their every day life.

I use to joke and say that the first 50 years of my life was done in black and white and that the credits would come at the end of this movie.

We are now down to the last 111 words.

I have been doing well with my diet and want to tell all I might be just a little skinny to do Santa this year. Doing Santa is something else I started doing when I turned 60. It is something that I loved doing and, all joking aside, I will try again. I love the look on the kids faces, it is one of wonderment and happiness. I wondered when I was young if I had the same look, I know from remembering that I had that wonderful feel of joy looking at what would be under the tree that year. It is one of the feelings that has stayed with me. Instead of it coming once a year that feeling has started to stay with me and I still look forward to a new day.

Well it came to 640 words not counting these words. I did write a little about the past but at my age it could not be helped. The time to write the article took 46 minutes. Welcome to the Fall my friends.