Great Summer, But…

It’s the time of year in Oregon where the weather says it’s still summer, but school calendars, sports schedules, and changing activities say otherwise.

For example, I’m still a few weeks away from obsessively taking fall leaf photos (get ready!). Yet, fall in its broader, societal sense is here.

It is the time where I have conversations with many friends that go something like, “We had a great summer, but ________.”

But, I’m looking forward to the routine again.

But, we’re ready to have the kids back in school.

All variations on the same theme.

For myself, it’s a couple-fold. By the week before last, a specific Wednesday in late August, the two children we cohabit with reached peak bickering. Fun times all summer, great moments here and there still. But, proximity had wrought a special, heightened level of bickering. “Special torture,” as John Cusack says in the excellent film Grosse Pointe Blank.

So, that’s enough right there. Split them up, fix the glitch. Each of us could probably do with a bit more variety in our socialization.

And then I factor in part two for me, the projects unbegun/unfinished. Those front steps aren’t going to build themselves. Are they? No. I welcome some hours each week where my kids have somewhere engaging and different to ply the trades of learning and socializing.

House projects, yard projects, let me at them. There are many good outside days between now and when the rains come gray and regular as they always will.

And we did have a great summer. But…

But, fall will prove great, too.

What is your great summer, but…?

What’s the fall project you’re clambering to dig into?