(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing: In Just Fall [1] ['Thom Hartmann', 'Chitown Kev', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Major Kong'] Date: 2026-09-24 I spent the first day of fall up in Sonoma at my daughter’s horse ranch. It was a bright blue afternoon with a slight breeze. As we pulled into the ranch, familiar smells of horse dung and hay drew me back 30 years or more to the days when my daughter rode as part of the pony club in Bolinas. She was there near every day riding her horse and hanging out with the other girls cleaning tack or stalls or feeding the horses. There’s something magical about horse ranches and yesterday was no exception. I fed her horse a carrot and an apple, helped brush him, and held his reins while she cleaned up after him in the arena. While she rode I sat in the instructors chair and watched for 45 minutes or so as she exercised him. My daughter does dressage now and the horse she leases is older and has a long history of shows. I just kept trying to be mindful of the peace and the quiet in the later afternoon. There were probably about seven or eight other women all total at the barn and their conversations pleasantly cut through the silence. There was no sound of cars from the street. It was still. I could hear the horse’s cadence as his heels sifted through the footing. When I arrived home, there was a thick layer of dust on my shoes. I felt content. Happy for my daughter that she remained connected with the wonderful world of horses. That night I took Maisie out to the field near my home for our usual last outing of the day. The sun was setting, the sky splashed with buckets of pink. The evening was still. A few young boys were practicing lacrosse. A man I walk with a few times a week waited for us near his car. He lost his six-year-old border collie a week ago. We spoke about how difficult this September has been, the kevlin wave, and the first day of fall. We agreed that we were ready to move on, for better things to come. The darkness swelled around us, an occasional set of car lights punctuating the growing night. It was a soft, special day. *** About the kevlin wave:, which is expected to reach California later this month or in early October and keep sea level elevated for several weeks. From WUSA: A kelvin wave is described as a large, slow-moving pulse of warm water. This is not a breaking wave that can be seen from the beach. During El Niño, weakened or occasionally reversed trade winds allow warm water piled up in the western Pacific Ocean to move eastward along the equator. When that water reaches the Americas, the wave’s energy turns northward and travels along the coastline as a coastally trapped kelvin wave. The kelvin wave alone may not produce flooding, especially while astronomical tides remain low. However, the risk could increase later in the fall and winter if elevated sea levels overlap with king tides or incoming Pacific storm systems Bobcat Film Noir – that's what happens when you sit too close to the trail camera!#nature #love #cats #mammals #nokings #PNW #Seattle #trailcam — Menestune (@menestune.bsky.social) 2026-09-23T15:31:49.434Z Speaking of wild cats, there have been two mountain lion sightings in the Bay Area in the past two weeks. One in San Francisco and the other in Mill Valley! Enough to make me all the more leary about turning the clocks back in a little over a month because I’ll have to walk Maisie in the dark. (We probably all know the instructions for what to do when encountering a big cat: never turn your back, try to appear big, and make noise.) Lidia and My Pupsicles"One is living his best life, the other one is just trying to survive it.🦁😂🍫" — KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 (@kojamf.bsky.social) 2026-09-23T19:45:50.570Z [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/24/800102392/community/kitchen-table-kibitzing-in-just-fall/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/