The Fall Of The Rat

As I walk along my forest path I look around and I see something very disturbing. But not only can I see it, I can feel it as well. Summer has abandoned me and fall is here. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I have been telling everyone that summer had gone by too fast. At first I thought I just didn't want what might have been my favorite outside summer to go away, but I decided to investigate and I found something very wrong.

I have been writing this blog for over a year now, and this is the first year I've spent most of my time outside. I watched as winter turned to spring, and I watched as spring turned to summer. Now I'm watching summer turn to fall, but what could be wrong with that? That's the way it's supposed to happen, isn't it? Not quite! Let me explain.

As I said before, I decided to investigate. I keep an archive of every photo I have taken since I started this blog right here on my computer. It's a huge archive, but I keep it well organized. What I did was to look back to a year ago to see just what things were like back then. This is where I found a huge discrepancy. Last year the leaves were still on the trees. The trees were still very green. This year things are different.

Right now the trees are turning very quickly and the leaves are beginning to fall at an alarming rate. We are almost a full month ahead of where we were last year. Mother Nature is pulling a cruel prank on us here, and it's not fair! No, it's not fair at all! I think we deserve an apology! I want it right now or I'm going to throw a tantrum of titanic proportions! Oh. I guess maybe that's what I'm doing right now.

There were so many places I wanted to go. So many things I wanted to see! I haven't even gotten the chance to go to all of my precious nature parks this summer. I went to exactly one state park this year. There is another one I visited last year, and I'm going to miss it completely now. And what about the national parks? I have never visited a national park in my entire life!

Just recently my friend DNLee over at Urban Science Adventures wrote an excellent post about the national parks. You can find that right here: National Parks - America's Best Idea. She listed all of the parks that she has visited, and then she asked me and a few others to join in and write a similar post listing our national park visits. That's when I realized that I had never been to a national park. Astonishing! Take a look at her post, she even has a link to a map of all of our national parks so you can check yours too.

I wanted so much to tell her, and all of you, about my trip to Jellystone where I met Yogi Bear and stole his precious pic-a-nic basket. But alas, that trip never happened. It would have been a complete lie! Ahhh, who knows? Maybe I'll tell you all that story one day anyway. It's a pretty good one! There was this huge fight between us and...

I better stop right there. Since I never got to visit a national park yet, I have a question to ask all of you. Have you visited a national park? And which one? How many have you been to? Can you tell me a little about your trip? It can be any national park in any country. I'm asking you this so I can understand in a small way what it would be like to visit one of these places. Can you help me? Maybe it will help make this early fall feel slightly better.

(Warning! Sometimes a rat seems more upset than he really is when looking through a computer monitor.)