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The End of Summer

I really enjoyed my Labor Day weekend…a nice quiet before the storm of fall events and workshops start up again.

But I was disappointed over weather. One thing strange to me about living in the East is this change-of-seasons thing they’ve got going. Last year I had a little heart attack in September when I suddenly realized the pool was closed for the rest of the year!

It was then I discovered that my joyful days of perfecting my tan well into October were over.

The pool closed last year after Labor Day even though our temperatures were still in the 80s and it was still humid. We still would have used it! It would have been wonderful.

This year, I was ready. I made plans to use the pool one last time over Labor Day weekend to sneak in a little more color (unlike many Scandinavians, I don’t blister when you leave me out in the sun). The weekend was beautiful, until…

Labor Day, when it rained. And was cloudy. And gloomy. No pool for me.

So, goodbye, summer! Farewell, tanning by natural light! I will see you on Memorial Day.

Next: cordouroy! The only good thing about autumn.

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It finally happened.

I just gave up and started writing fiction.

I took a three-day vacation from work, which was wonderful and overdue. A line popped into my head—a first line—and I started writing a story. I’m about halfway into it. It’s going pretty well, I think.

Other vacation highlights: laying out by the pool and earning a very, very dark tan; cleaning my house; catching up on my TV shows; doing the Vancouver section of LOCUSPOINT.

Also, wasting several hours preparing for a presentation for class that I didn’t get to give because we ran out of time.

And: retail therapy. Gap, Express, Nordstrom. Bought several work shirts, two pairs of hot pants (not “hot pants” but pants that are hot), some socks, a tie. Got some grown-up man cologne. Had a nice lunch.