My favorite week

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

In many ways, this is my favorite week of the year. The world’s greatest twofer holiday, Halloween/Nevada Day, fast approaches. All around town, folks are dressed in one sort of costume or another. Grownups all zombied out for a crawl. Kids decked out for parties and trick-or-treating. There are bowls of candy around the office. Even the most squeamish members of my family are willing to watch scary movies. The World Series is on—and terrifying for us Giants fans who really hope the fat-payroll Dodgers somehow manage to blow it.

But the best thing is the weather: cool enough to bundle up in a favorite sweater, but not so cold as to require a winter coat. The air is crisp and not as overburdened with allergens as it was at the beginning of the month. The daylight is perfect—a long, pretty sunrise followed almost immediately by a long, pretty sunset—a perpetual crepuscular state. And the colors—golds and reds—are vibrant, astounding, strange and ever-changing.

Driving around town lately, it’s hard not to gape, as each street presents a new delight of technicolor foliage. I’d be hard-pressed to choose a favorite—but if you haven’t driven down Nixon Avenue in a while, do yourself a favor.

Still, all of that said, reading this week’s cover story—a good piece of travel writing by two of Reno’s better music writers, recounting their recent tour through South America with their band—definitely awakened some latent wanderlust in me.

We live in an amazing, beautiful place—never more so than now—but there are so many amazing, beautiful places. I wonder, just how does a Brazilian spring compare to a Reno fall?