There’s something about the fall of the year that gets the blood rushing.

Sure, we’re due some more heat until about mid-October. Being a Southerner born and bred, the warm days and slightly cooler nights prove somewhat uncomfortable, but they’re not disastrous.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

See, it’s football season, election season, time for the pennant races in baseball to really fire up. Before too long, crispy mornings will float across the pasture and the deer I’ve caught glimpses of over at the River Bend Inn will start coming out to play in the evening.

Why watch television when Mother Nature tosses you five or six frolicking four-legged wonders to watch every night?

But most of all, this year, we have politics.

Got to admit, I’m a junkie.

It’s likely while I’m sitting on the deck with an eye toward the thicket and the deer that’ll emerge, I’m listening to POTUS on my satellite radio.

And if that’s not the case, then the computer is open to some Web page about the race between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Who’ll win? Right now, it’s not about that. It’s about the race. It’s about the speeches and the news and the reaction and the crowds.

A good many of our folks have ventured West to Denver this week to participate in the Democratic National Convention. Sure, since television and 24-hour news stations and all the polling, we know the results already. That’s not the point.

Just think, some of our friends and neighbors or colleagues have gone to represent us in this very action of democracy that has endured with some variations since George Washington took office.

You have to feel a certain amount of pride at being a part of that, even if you’re 1,402 miles away.

At least that’s the way it has been for this American ever since the 1964 GOP convention when the delegates selected Barry Goldwater to lead the ticket.

Sometime this week, some delegate from Alabama will stand up to say, “Madame secretary, the great state of Alabama, where the children are beautiful and smart, gives all of its votes to …”

And we still have the National Republican Convention to go.

That’s the kind of winding down to a year I like.

So, sit back and turn on the radio or grab a remote and read the pundits.

It’s coming on fall.

Leesha Faulkner is executive editor of The Selma Times-Journal and selmatimesjournal.com. You may reach her at 410-1730 or at leesha.faulkner@selmatimesjournal.com.