I’m having a really hard time with Summer coming to an end. Not the season Summer. I’m ready to get the hell out of Texas and head for the mountains. Forty-two years in this state and I can’t acclimate. I’m getting crotchety and can’t tolerate the heat anymore. Anyway, I mean the end of Summer vacation. The girls start school tomorrow and I’m having a really, really hard time with it. All day I’ve been having a hard time with it. Usually Elise is the one who gets all sentimental and melancholy; but it’s me this time. I’m having a tough go of it.
She and I talked a bit about it tonight, and I think part of it is because our good friends and next door neighbors hauled off and shipped to Portland at the very beginning of the Summer. Last summer we really got to know them. A lot of the summer was spent hanging out outside in our front yards, talking, letting the kids play, breaking bread, drinking beer, laughing our asses off, keeping our kids up way too late, watching football, playing games, playing with the kids, entertaining the kids, talking to other neighbors, and just building a really good relationship. This summer, the girls and I did a lot of things, but it seems like the home time was a little less eventful because it was just kind of us. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it was a little more low-key than last year.
In an effort to remind myself of what all we did this summer, it helped to go through my phone to look at all the things we did since late May.
In no particular order, this is my brief recap. For my own solace and sanity.
- We went to Okeene, OK for Memorial Day and (surprise!) celebrated Steve’s 70th birthday.
- There were a few remaining days of school left, so we took Mara to her last day of Kindergarten and Maly’s last day of 6th grade.
- We flew to San Diego for Adam’s high school graduation. And we hung out with my California family. Here are the cousins with Mojo. Craig and I ran/hiked Mt. Woodson. We spent lots of time with the graduate, who’s going to OU. We went to the beach.
- We came back to Texas. Elise had something to do, so I was on Dad duty and we played games.
- We went to Town Lake and found our newly-installed family brick. And we took a photo with the skyline behind us.
- I rebuilt a deck chair.
- I went to Baltimore for some sales training and hung out with friends. I work at Under Armour, so there’s the obligatory photo of HQ from across the harbor.
- I apparently did some running, so Mara gave me a calf massage.
- We watched the World Cup. I’m so into World Cup now. Seriously.
- Maly went to lacrosse camp. Now she loves lacrosse and we’ve signed her up for club league which starts in September.
- I took a selfie of my long beard.
- Maly loves lacrosse so much that she and I went out and bought lacrosse sticks and balls. She practiced playing wall ball on the side of our house. And then she lost a ball in the storm drain, so I made her go get it.
- We hung out with Harry and Joy one night and ate pulled pork sandwiches. And swam in the pool.
- I bought Maly some running sunglasses.
- We visited my mom. Elise and I sprayed Round Up all over her pasture (we’ll probably get cancer now) to kill dewberry vines that’ve overtaken the place. We ate expensive (but good) hamburgers at Pivo’s. And we fished.
- We went to a let down of a Fourth of July (on the Third of July) fireworks display that our neighborhood HOA presented. And then we went to our friends place on the 4th for a real party. Sandy and I played 9 ball. John drew on his shoes.
- The Circle C Run Club actually became a thing with Saturday group runs.
- I trimmed my beard. And then I actually shaved it off.
- Maly went to camp at The Pines.
- Elise had something to do, so the girls and I drove to Bandera and tubed the Medina River. That was a blast. They wore themselves out.
- The Circle C Run Club continued to meet every weekend for group runs.
- We hung out with friends (Mara’s kindergarten teacher’s family) on Lake Austin where we did a lot of boating and eating and laughing and more boating.
- I went through my running shoes.
- Took a long road trip through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wiconsin and Illinois. I’m partial to the Flint Hills of this otherwise uneventual road trip.
- We hung out with Steve and Joanne.
- We went to the Zoo.
- We went to the Stauss Family reunion outside of Milwaukee.
- We ate really good custard.
- The girls and I drove down to Chicago and stayed at a chic hotel. Very chic.
- We ate deep dish pizza.
- We hung out on Lake Michigan.
- We toured Chicago by boat. Hell, we did a lot of stuff in Chicago.
- And we did one last family outing at Pedernales State Park.
Going through all that stuff, I don’t feel as bad now. We had a lot of fun adventures and good times together. My heart feels a lot better now.