The birch tree and leaves remind me of the yard of the house I grew up in. Fall was always so beautiful in upstate New York, marking the coming transition to winter and a new year. The weather got significantly colder and the sky grayer.

I can’t help but miss the season change. I know some leaves do change color in northern California and I’ll see them this week. But it’s not the same as the whole “harbinger of winter” thing.

Of course, no one likes the northeastern winters. Long, cold, dark. Snow. Slush. Ice.

But in November, it’s time to wear thick socks and turn the heater on inside the house so we’re toasty warm. Even early-bird dinner is in the dark. We all look forward to the aroma of roasting turkey on the last Thursday of the month. Unless we’re vegetarian. In which case, it’s roasting soy product.

M. and I may get a little bit of a “cold fix” this month as we are visiting friends who live outside Boulder for Thanksgiving. Of course, you never know what you’ll get at the Front Range: it could be a sunny 75 degrees or snow like hell.

Now that we are considering a two-step retirement, we’re looking seriously at the Boulder area. My friend would like us to move there. And there are some things I like about it, especially a great cost of living. And the Flatirons, shown in the photo.

But she works for Sun, recently acquired by Oracle, and her job could be iffy. This puts her significantly at risk of losing her very nice house and acreage because there is very little tech industry in the greater Denver area. It would be a bitch if we moved and then she was forced to move elsewhere.

And M. is a city boy. Nearby Denver has always left me cold (no pun intended) and only barely qualifies as a city, in my opinion. Which maybe in its favor. I don’t know.

First step: California. Then, plenty of time to decide.