Oh No, Mr. Bill!!!!! Say It Ain't So!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It had to happen sooner or later, but why so soon?

Sitting in the physical therapy waiting room, the fellow across the way strikes up a conversation in the way old pharts do here in Maine...

"Cold enough for ya?" he asks, with that knowing grin.

"Right nipply," I reply. "Beautiful day, though. Sure beats the alternative."

Here it comes. That classic Maine coup-de-grace; the conversation topic that all other topics here in Maine revolve around.

"Won't be long now," he adds, with a twinkle in his eye and a pointed glance at my shorts, "we'll be shoveling that sunshine, don'tcha know?"

Damned. He slid it right in there like the boys of summer stealing second. And he's gonna force ME to utter that abominable word! Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

"Yep," says I, "past time to get ready for snow. Why, the pumpkins are even starting to turn a little orange!

The old windbag got me to say the word we don't say out loud in September, lest it come true...

Now where'd I put that shovel?