Ready for winter?

I keep trying to convince myself that I'm ready for winter.

Everything around me -- chilly mornings, falling leaves and pine needles, turning on the heat -- should be reminder enough.

But I feel like I'm owed another month or two of nice weather before the harshness of winter settles in.

I haven't forgiven Mother Nature for the mediocre summer. Despite the equinox calendar, my summer runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And June was a washout. Probably half of July was a washout. August was terrific.

That means my three month summer was actually only about a month and a half. Someone owes me more summer.

Which is why I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around winter.

My wife Jane and I attempted to extend our summer with a nine-day trip to Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey in late September. We baked in the sun and heat at Camden Yards in Baltimore for an Orioles-Red Sox game. And we had warm enough weather to bask on the Delaware beaches and swim in the surf. And I had great weather for a couple of rounds of golf in Delaware and New Jersey.

But while that added a week to my summer, we returned home to the beginning throes of winter.

Baseball -- the sport of summer -- is winding down. (Let's go Red Sox!) The winter sports -- football, basketball and hockey -- are spooling up.

I've put my surfing gear away for the winter; I'm not a cold-weather surfer. The golf league I play in each Tuesday has wrapped up for the season; all we have left is an 18-hole tournament this weekend.

I'm thinking ahead to the likelihood of a good ski season. I'm hoping that the Farmer's Almanac is wrong with its forecast for an unseasonably cold winter with less snowfall than average. I'd rather have the snow over the cold. The family is planning our winter pilgrimage to the North Conway, N.H., area for our annual ski vacation during the school vacation week in February.

And the family is talking who will be where for Christmas.

The winter conversation is certainly there, so it's top of mind.

But as convincing as I try to be to myself that winter is coming, my brain is still many weeks from wrapping its head around what's ahead.