08.21.06
I’ll keep this short…
Mostly because I don’t have too much time, but a blog entry is long overdue.
Summer is winding down. It’s been quite a summer. I’ve been away from home more this summer than any in recent memory. Mostly, it’s been spending time with the kids: museums, visiting friends, zoos, amusement parks, etc. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed myself while doing all of this, but I’m very much a homebody.
We just came back from a short trip to Idlewild Park. I have to say, of all the trips we’ve had this summer, this has been the most enjoyable. The park is an amusement park, with lots of the sections being geared to kids. Everyone working there was fantastic, and, the best part, most of the guests attending the park while we were there were nice as well. The park is an older park, so the roller coasters are all rickety (which I think just makes them that much more thrilling), the kiddy rides are older than those on them, and the overall tone is laid back.
We are now just a week away from school starting. This is especially noticeable in our house, since my wife teaches. It’s a time for reflection on the summer, now past, and sorry at the thought of not seeing Mom everyday. My job changes this year as well, as my son enters first grade and I need to get him ready for school everyday (kindergarten was every other day last year). Then, amidst all of the lost summer nostalgia, there’s an electric twinge as autumn approaches. Fall is, by far, my favorite time of the year. The colors change, the air acquires a nip, and the scent of wood fires caresses the breeze. You feel as though everything in the past is ending (both good and bad, which makes it delightfully bittersweet), and the future stretches out before you with unlimited potential. This electric time of year only lasts until winter, which I also enjoy, but the sense of the past being soundly deceased is inescapable.
So raise your glass to another summer past, and drink it down with the promise of an endless future until the snow flies.