If Kate were here today, she'd accuse me of being 'sullen' – which is apparently how I look when I'm feeling calm. Placid, even. Laid-back. Low-key.

This afternoon I took a walk through downtown Bethesda. It's a gray, rainy day here, the perfect kind of day for those kind of long, slow walks where you just watch everything from a distance. The pink and purple flowers of late summer are bobbing in a slight breeze, with beads of rain jiggling on their leaves. Puddles ripple and shimmer as the wind blows across their surfaces, and the people are dressed in everything from shorts and tank tops to long early-autumn overcoats.

It's these in-between seasons I love the most. September. Oh, how I love September.

On afternoons like this, even if my eyes aren't shining and I'm not bouncing along, I'm not sullen. I'm just quietly enjoying the ride.