Summertime

Well, I know that my schedule is generally different from everyone else's, but even if you're not a school teacher, I think that summer is still different. You might be in the office, but things are a little more relaxed. Rush hour isn't as tense, and you tend to enjoy going out to lunch a little more. (And if you happen to take an hour and a half instead of an hour, the boss is less likely to complain.)

But then you have the dog-days of summer, here in the middle of August, and if you are a kid or a teacher of kids (or a parent of kids), you start to look forward to September. And with good reason: cooler temperatures, pretty colors on the trees, the smell of new pencils and new notebooks, and Halloween on the horizon.

Keep summer in mind though, when sometime soon, deep in January or February, when the thermometer bottoms out and you slide across that intersection on a sheet of ice on your way to work, when two sweaters and a down jacket don't keep the wind out, when you leave home in the dark and return home in the dark. Just remember. Remember cool breezes and iced lemonade, remember hanging on the swings and playing in the pool, remember "five more minutes, mom, we can still see the ball". Remember the good ol' days of summertime.