Still Summer

It is almost the end... As the unofficial end of summer 2013 lurks around the corner (and by unofficial end, I am choosing our Canadian Labour Day Weekend as the notable mark) I am, like everyone I encounter, lapping up every moment that these days are providing me. With the sun shining and the lake breezes gently blowing I am going about my day to day activities drinking in the perfection while it lasts.

Yesterday, I walked the main street of my home town which was closed down for a classic car show. Families joined in the relaxed meandering, oohing and aaahing over the old, new, fancy, expensive array of cars. As I walked the path of the show, I was a conspicuous observer of conversations; Moms and Dads with their children, couples dream shopping. And more than a couple of times I laughed out loud at Dads as they encouraged excitement from their sons over the complexities of engine construction and varying horse power. Boys will be boys.

But universal in the crowd was the genuine appreciation of the beauty of the day. Everyone, I think, feels the same way right now... Summer is a fleeting thing and we are almost done with it for another year. Summers in south-western Ontario are lovely and temperate, sometimes hotter than what's tolerable by most but this year has not been like that. It's been lovely. What we seem to forget is that summer doesn't officially end until September 21st. There are still beautiful days ahead of us, for sure. I remind myself of this to hopefully avoid the over-eager welcoming I habitually provide to the seasons as they move from one to another. I am about to develop my seasonal twitch. As predictable as autumn following summer.

I blame this affliction on the back to school ritual. Every year growing up, I have happy memories of my Dad loading our small, dysfunctional family (come on, we're all dysfunctional in one way or another) into our car to travel the hour or so to the big city of Toronto and visit Yorkdale Mall for our back to school shopping. Now, I'm not sure if we actually did this every year, but the rose-coloured glasses that I view these trips with allow me to declare with great creative license and thereby certainty that it was an annual ritual. Every year my sister and I would come back home with a new outfit with which to proudly begin a new school year. And of course, since I now had a new back to school outfit, I of course was determined to wear it on the first day of school and many times after. Naturally though, this being late August shopping, the outfits were always cool weather materials and the weather was rarely compliant. The result? Me sweating through the first month of school with determined resolution to wear my new fall clothes.

I kept this odd tradition for years and even to this day have to talk myself out of the urge to wear fall clothes too early... the same in the spring... Equally awkward. Over the years, I've taken my boys to fall fairs in delightful fall outfits while the weather sweltered and most everyone was enjoying the late summer heat while I was feeling conflicted over the smartness of my outfit and how Mother Nature had betrayed the calendar to provide a summer day.

So I sit here on a summer Sunday, slowing turning my mind to the week ahead... Determined to not look into my sweater drawer for at least another three weeks. For sure. At the earliest. No matter what.

Unless it cools down some. I can't halp that.