FALL DAYS AGAIN

It’s the dog days of August already and all of those things in nature that I wrote so excitedly about last May are moving again, but in the wrong direction. The trees are exfoliating, the flowers have said “enough.” The goslings are all grown up and the fawns have lost their spots.  Along with the memories of this summer are all of those things I was going to get done this season and didn’t. But then I’m at a point in my life when my activities are no longer as regimented as they used to be. It can wait for another day, another summer or maybe it won’t get done at all and that’s all right. “What’s that you say you’re giving up on life?” No, not at all. I’m Just tying to keep things going, in the order of their importance. A year from now no one will remember if I painted the house, or changed the carpeting. I will remember making friends with my new neighbors, or a night I shared with my family at the fireworks in Crosby Ironton on the 4th. Concerts in the park in Crosslake and walks with Pat and our dogs or Chef Andy’s delicious beer can chicken and Monica’s healthy salads.

For me this will be the summer that I will remember my Grandsons wedding and my family being all-together again. The countless conversations I had with old friends under a bright blue summer sky, cruising the chain on Marv’s pontoon. Chats with my neighbor Andrea and conversations with Harry. Coffee with the old coots at Pine Peak’s solving the world’s problems. There are times when you no longer have anything that’s important to say to each other, so you tell some stupid joke you told before, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Just being together is what it’s all about and so often just a smile or a good laugh can say what words simply can’t convey. We all remember all to well an empty chair. Summer accentuates these times, by giving us this beautiful stage to meet on before the cold winds blow once more and we shutter and close the doors or some of us scatter south. I mentioned my new neighbors who have small children and what a breath of fresh air it was this year, in a neighborhood of old people, to hear kids playing in the water and enjoying the lake.

Fall sneaks up on you. At first the changes are subtle. You notice a bite in the air when you go get your paper in the morning. The days grow shorter and sometimes it seems like summer is beating a hasty exit but then you adjust and what was once an eight p.m. walk with the dog, to avoid the heat of the day, is now done at six and then four and suddenly you realize you have milked it for all it was worth and you reach a place in your life where you cross-over from the summer that was --to the fall and winter yet to come. Yes the summer of 15-- now belongs to the ages.

 I have always felt that New Years Day should have been celebrated on May first and not January first. You see, at least for me, that is when so much of life really begins. Someday I hope to chronicle my life and I know now, that so much of my story will have taken place in summer. It’s Sunday evening in late August as I write this and the daily parade of pontoons circling the lake has begun. It’s not a big lake and the trip isn’t far and the parade has dwindled in size. Many of the people have left for the city and their jobs. Some of them say, “There is too much of a chill in the air” and have put their pontoons away already. It’s time to enjoy autumn.