Fall in Iowa City

It is polite to greet somebody in the Midwest with a question about the weather.

It is with that Midwestern greeting in mind that I ask the following question: “How is the weather?”

It is with that Midwestern greeting mind that I tell you the following thing: “The weather in Iowa City has been just fine.”

***

It feels like fall. Good timing, because it’s fall. The students arrived a few weeks ago and classes started this week. Nothing like a college town in fall.

College kids drive the wrong way on one-ways. They congregate in yards and drink Busch Light. They step out in front of traffic. They are overdressed on Monday and underdressed on Friday. There is a buzz in the air. New classes starting. New semester. It’s good energy.

I walk to campus when I can. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy the breeze. It’s still August, but the sweltering Iowa humidity is vanishing. Drifting through neighborhoods. Me and my headphones. Me and my backpack. A college professor disguised as a college student. My graying sideburns give me away.

I look forward to changing leaves, to another semester on this campus, and to fall in Iowa City.

The weather is just fine.

***

I’ve always been polite. Even when that means not saying what I actually think or feel. Start a conversation with a remark about the weather? Sure.

I feel less and less like being polite, even though I continue to be polite. It’s one thing to be kind. It’s another to repress what I think or feel so as to make somebody else feel happy. People pleasing. I want to do less of that as I get older. Have to do less of that. There’s too much in me that needs to be expressed. So I guess I’ll express it now, whatever that means.

Here’s the only thing I have to express this morning. Iowa City in the fall is a nice place to be.