The summer equinox

We like to think that at a certain time, not always the same day, we can sense that the earth is tilting farther away from the sun. It's not any cooler; it just seems that the quality of light has changed. This is the week that it happened this year. K. likes to imagine a day he calls the "summer equinox," about a month after June 21, when the days grow shorter at a faster rate. Every year there comes a day when the air smells a bit more like fall than like summer. This day has not yet arrived this year. Nothing about these two phenomena means that it's any cooler; we're just closer to the time when living without air-conditioning becomes less unpleasant.