"Hay-fever is now definitely over, but some of its sequelae continue.  I have, at intervals, a dry cough, there is a sore spot on my lower lip that refuses to heal, and my sleep is still more or less disturbed.  The temperature on the roof outside my bathroom, when I arose this morning, was 45.  Fallen leaves fill the backyard and the street before my office window.  Darkness comes soon after 6 p.m. and there is a sad, sickly feeling in the air.  The year is drawing to a close, and I look forward to 1945 without too much hope.  I am definitely aging, and throwing of a 700-page book is no longer the easy task it used to be."

                                                                                                                                        H.L. Mencken
                                                                                                                                        October 11, 1944
                                                                                                                                        The Diary of H.L. Mencken