When You're Having Fun

When I was a kid, I used to think that summer flew by. It always seemed that I had just shed my dull brown-and-tan uniform for shorts and sneakers when I had to suit up again for another year of sitting up straight with my hands folded, for another year of books and notebooks and homework.

However, summers have been rocketing by at hyper-speed since we retired. Maybe it's just that, lacking resident students at our house, we have no markers for the seasons. Last day of school isn't all that different from the other days in June. Maybe we've just had too many places to go and things to do this summer. San Diego, Chautauqua, West Virginia, Charlottesville...And our local environment hasn't helped with the sort of clues I remember. Stores have not been good guides to the calendar, trumpeting back-to-school savings minutes after the 4th of July sales disappeared. The Nats are winning: doesn't that usually stop in August? t think I just turned the page marked July, and now they tell me it's nearly September and there are only 125 days till Christmas? Wait just one minute, here, folks.

The issue here is that I have a few "To Do" lists that have completion dates scheduled for the end of summer. My patio was to have been cleaned up, plants replaced, vines trimmed, furniture cleaned, and weeds eradicated. That side garden needs to be reworked entirely. We were going to have the gutters cleaned and checked, a watering system arranged, and the fountain cleaned of all that green gunk. Inside, the bookshelves were to be inspected and culled of those books we really don't need to have (that includes the cookbook accumulation that has overrun the family room shelves.) Also on the list are the two hanging counter-lamps that are performing some vicious tag-team blackout maneuver. No sooner do we replace one lightbulb than the other goes out, leaving us squinting at the morning paper. The electrician was to be called as soon as we purchased replacements this summer. There's a bathtub that needs re-coating that has been peeling in leprous patches for nearly a year. All this stuff was scheduled for these couple months when we had a little spare time, and now, you tell me it's over? What about the clothes closets I was going to sort through? The trunk full of photographs that clamor for organization? The stuff that has accumulated on the kitchen counters and under virtually every piece of furniture capable of holding a storage drawer?

It can't be September yet. I'm not ready. But...are those chrysanthemums I see at the nursery?