Enjoy this day, today, like you've never enjoyed before, because today represents the end of summer and tomorrow is August and everything is all downhill from there.
Oh sure, the calendar says July 31 and about seven more weeks of summer but that is merely numbers. The days are beginning to get ever so shorter and the nights are slightly longer. You can tell the sun is shifting.
Growing up as a kid, I always dreaded August because August was a reminder that September was only a month away. And September meant the beginning of back-to-school, which was cool. For about a week, until homework, and the onslaught of homeroom. At least Halloween was beckoning, but even that sucked because it started getting dark at around 4ish.
As you can see, I'm a light guy. Daylight. Sunshine. Optimism and hope. Even during youth, I hated and dreaded the words, "fall" and "autumn" and cringed at the very first appearence of the leaves turning brown. Fall colors may be revered by some people and makes for nirvana in the northeast, but for me represented a reminder of the coming winter. I hate winter.
Winter is gray and dreary. Depressing too. The only thing positive about winter is Christmas and any day now, we're bound to get our first Christmas commercial from the stores. Assuming, of course, given the economy, they're still open.
While we spend billions and billions on space exploration and missiles and stimulus packages, how about a scientific study on ways to extend summer? Instead of the four seasons, why not, say, two halfs? I'd settle for a six-month autumn/winter combo in exchange for a six-month summer, wouldn't you? Now that's a real stimulus package.
