The weather has been fabulous, a comfortable warmth during the day and an invigorating chill at night.

The Red Sox conclude their season today, a season which has seen the Yankees in second place - or worse - since April, a playoff berth clinched with more than a week to go and thrilling performances by youngsters named Pedroia, Ellsbury and Buchholz and by seasoned veterans named Ortiz, Lowell and Beckett.

Over in Foxboro, the Patriots are playing the best football of the Belichick-Brady era, an era that has already included three Super Bowl championships.

Here in Attleboro, campaign signs are adding more hues to the already spectacular autumn landscape as voters prepare to decide who will lead the city for the next two years.

The new month begins tomorrow, and as natives to this area know, there is no better time to be a New Englander than in October. It's more than the region's renowned foliage that makes fall the best time of the year.

There are dozens of community activities - high school football games, school fairs, church suppers - for friends and neighbors to catch up on what they did last summer.

Sports are reaching their peak, and the excitement grows when the Red Sox are in the playoffs and the Patriots are headed in that direction.

We are no longer belabored by the humidity of midsummer, but the sun is still inviting, drawing us to the garden or the golf course or the grill or whatever is our favorite place to be.

The air is crisper. The sky is as blue as it will be all year. Heck, even the apples are crunchier and sweeter than they will be all year.

That appears to be especially true this year when there is a promise of a wondrous fall.

Our advice today is to take advantage of it: Take in a game with a friend. Stop by a farmstand and pick up a bag of apples. Most of all, go outside and enjoy the day (near-perfect weather is forecast).

And as the month progresses, we urge residents to participate in a community event and spend time with neighbors. We hope Attleboro voters will be watching the candidates closely in October and going to the polls on Nov. 6.

Soon enough, the days will grow shorter - though clocks will not be turned back until the first weekend in November this year, a week later than in the past. The air will change from crisp to bitterly cold. Time is short for enjoying the great outdoors.

Today is a great time to celebrate New England in all its glory.