As I look out the window on this lovely fall day, I wonder why it is supposed to be our second consecutive 90 degree day. It isn't a lovely fall day, it is the middle of summer, in the middle of September. But why, why I ask you, has summer ended, but summer heat lingers like leftovers in the back of the refrigerator. Summer ended. I know. I watched it end several times.
Summer first ended when our summer swim team season ended. That is always the first sign of the end of summer. The 7 week thief of the freedom of summer takes over our lives with a routine of practices, meets, social events, lunches and aggravation. We all love it. The end of summer swim is as abrupt as a brick wall. We see new and old friends on an almost daily basis, with little or no control over our lives, and then -BAM- it is over. The first week after swim season ends is like withdrawal from an addiction.
The end of summer swim did not, however, come with the end of summer swim. As I recovered from my withdrawal symptoms, I could look forward to the family summer vacation. We spent a wonderful week in Myrtle Beach, highlighted by a sunset kayak tour and lowlighted by Youngest's face plant into a pile of shells, courtesy of a 5 foot wave. We managed to squeeze in a lot of wave fighting (the waves were particularly strong that week), some mini-golf, an aquarium, a trip the Fort Sumpter and even a casual stroll on a World War II Air Craft Carrier (the USS Yorktown). And with the end of that trip, summer was over.
Except it wasn't. We had another week of summer break, lazy days, boredom and nothing until school started (well, at least the Boys did). One more week for them after returning from Myrtle Beach to get themselves prepared for the end of summer and the beginning of school. That week ended and so did summer.
Except it didn't. They started school. I started making lunches again. The Wife started dealing with homework again. Summer was definitely over.
Except it wasn't. Four days after they started school, they had Friday off and we celebrated Labor Day weekend. Labor Day is always the traditional end of summer. We took care of some things around the house, went out for ice cream and grilled dinner multiple times. On Monday, we went to the pool one last time. Mother Nature decided to declare the end of summer with a strong thunderstorm, ending our day and closing the pool for good. Summer had indeed come to an end.
Except, it kind of didn't. We still hadn't started winter swim practice, we hadn't started Cub Scouts, we hadn't gone to church. Many of the things we put on hold hadn't started and although school and soccer practices (plus all three Back to School Nights) made last week difficult, we hadn't really hit the end of summer. This week, it hit us. Swim practices, soccer practices, 5 days of school, church, homework, Ninja... Just an avalanche of activities.
This was the real end of summer. As a kid, summer is a wonderful time of nothing and boredom. As a parent, it is a break from non-stop activities. I enjoy not making lunch, not having to compare schedules with the Wife every morning and, this summer, not working out. With the real end of summer, all that comes back.
As we started to get our groove back a little (and we were thankful the end of summer came in waves and not all at once), I started to realize that we shouldn't make New Year's Resolutions. New Year's Day isn't a transition, at least not for a parent. New Year's Day is a nice holiday and a rude end to the "holiday" season. But I am doing the same things after New Year's Day that I was doing a week and a half before New Year's Day.
The end of summer is a transition. I go from (relatively) free to a full schedule, and that is nothing compared to the awful change The Wife must deal with. It is a new beginning. A new swim season (for the boys and for me), a new school year, a new soccer season, a new Ninja schedule. It is a great chance for a new outlook on things. I took 2 months off from swimming over the summer. It was great. I got home at a reasonable hour, I wasn't the slowest moving person in the family, I didn't hurt ALL. THE. TIME. But with the end of summer, I started up again. I hurt again, I am slow again, I never see my family again. But it was time.
The end of summer is time. Time to start everything again, or for the first time. As a parent of kids in school and sports, the end of summer is the beginning of everything else. So I decided to look at it as my new beginning. My chance to re-focus myself on trying to do things better. Trying to parent better, do better at my job, workout better, maybe even eat better. It just seemed like a better time to do this than while watching bowl games on TV (or not, since they no longer really have that many on New Year's Day).
So Summer, you're done. We are back to everything. Enough with the 90 degree days.
