Thursday, August 15, 2013

The rest of the year.........

Summer's almost over. That bothers me, I never feel that it's long enough - like a kid who doesn't want to go back to school, I mourn the end of summer. There are a few things I like about autumn/fall. The leaves turning beautiful colors. Crisp but not totally cold air. The smell of a school all cleaned up, polished and ready for its students. Indian summer....when and if we have one. That's about it. Otherwise, you can keep it.

Keep Halloween please; as well as that other fall holiday, Thanksgiving. Halloween because after the kids in your life are 9 years old it's just a bother. Make that 7. Thanksgiving because while I love the food spread associated with it. What's the point really? No one that I know has ever been truly thankful. They just say they are. And then there's the fact that fall leads to winter very rapidly. Humbug.

The madness of Christmas. The cold, frigid temperatures. The SNOW! The ice. Black ice. Gray unsightly days. The dreaded month of February. When I was raising children I always wondered why, oh why, give the kids a whole week off from school when it's miserable outside? Oh yeah, you can take them skiing; or if you really want to blow money you can drag them away from the bad weather to some paradise island. Fun? Maybe if you're lucky. But If I'm going to paradise young children are not who I want to bring with me. Much as I love my grandkids I am pretty sure I don't want to take them either. Tweens and teens? Good gracious, I'm not that crazy. Staying home and being miserable until spring actually sounds better.

Easter. The holiest holiday in the Christian calendar, has always been iffy for me. Honestly. Even when as a youngster, while I enjoyed the dressing up in new Easter outfits, and the family dinner with cousins and aunts and uncles, the purpose of this holiday always was a blur for me. More so than Christmas even. Is it a holy day? Are we meditating on the death and resurection of Christ; or has the Easter bunny left me enough chocolate to last a lifetime? At various stages of my life I immersed myself in to the holy part of it. Holy Thursday; Good Friday visiting what seemed like a kazillion churches with my mother; Holy Saturday Easter Vigil; and the the Easter Bunny, the bonnet, the shiny shoes, chocolate and ham. All mixed together like a hodgepodge of life. Serious yet festive. Borderline morose and the silliness of hunting for plastic Easter eggs. Just a strange holiday if you ask me. And god forbid it rains and all that festivity is spoiled. The truly one thing nice about spring is it's not cold anymore and the flowers start to bloom. That's it. Oh, and summer is on its way.

Beloved summer. Warm, hot, sticky, lazy summer. The smell of suntan lotion and salt water just never loses its appeal to me. Sand in my hair, down my bathing suit, and stuck to my feet is not at all bothersome. It's just a reminder of how nice it is outside; how little work one is expected to get done; and that this will last almost 3 months. Even chlorine smells good to me, clean in a way nothing else is clean. Long days when the sun doesn't go down until after 9 pm and when it starts its journey people stop in awe. Summer's holiday, July 4th, is passable. It's a do what you find fun kind of a day. People. No people. Beach. No beach. Barbeque. No barbeque. Fireworks or not. Truthfully, I could go on and on and on about the virtues of summer.......and now it's almost over.


5 comments:

Older and Weiser said...

I guess that is why I am liking FL so much. He may be hot as Hades right now, but I know in 6 months, I will not be shoveling snow! And it stays GREEN year round--yay!

I have to admit, I like Turkey Day and Christmas--not the commercial side of it, but the family part.

I am looking forward to "Fall" in Florida--mid 80's and nice breezes--now THAT is my kind of weather!

Enjoy each day you have on the beach, sweetie...and remember--next summer is only 6 months away! :)

new#3 said...

Well more like 9 months, but it's definitely something to look forward to. 80s and nice breezes...that's heaven. Enjoy! And thanks for continuing to read and comment :)

Unknown said...

Ah well I never did have much family around when I was a kid, and now have none so holidays are out for me. I wanted to move, out of state, but where is the question. And I have 2 possibilities in-state where there are people I know where it would be better but it's too damned hot there. Where I am temperature wise it's great. I don't do well in heat, and I'm 20-30 degrees below what these other 2 places are, with mild winters. So don't know what to do. Problem is most everybody I used to know died or retired and moved away. Sucks.

new#3 said...

BC so good to hear from you! I found when I lived where the temperatures got very high (over 100) I did ok as long as I stayed in Air conditioning a lot of the time. It seems we get to that stage in life where friends become scarcer..make new friends is what we are supposed to do .... not always easy.

Unknown said...

It sure is not easy to make new friends. Not ones you really connect with and challenge you. In fact, I have none at the moment. My friends don't challenge me at all. I know you once said you liked politics. Me too. We are probably 180 but it doesn't matter. At least we could talk about the same things from different perspectives. I can do it without getting angry or nasty. Went to a big group of women and once was so proud she signed up 1200 democrats on registration. Wonderful. California really needs another 1200 dems. All major statewide offices, ALL, are filled by dens with big majorities in state capital, house and both senators and governor. Please excuse the auto-correct. I'm tired of going back and fixing stuff. Also, in this state, you can't just go hunt down people to register as dens or repubs or independents or whatever. You have to take them all so I'd feel like invalidating her 1200 but what difference would it make? Too much trouble.