Day Sixty-two: The Beginning of the End

I’m sure we’ll get another sweep of warm air before the onset of autumn. One last surge, an Indian summer if we’re lucky. But there is little doubt that this  summer is picking up speed toward the finish line. And there was a definite crisp note in the air this morning—that heady mix of dried leaves, blackberry vines, and the promise of rain. It used to be my favorite smell in the world, the smell of school just around the corner. But, since moving to this gray world I can’t help but dread that turn.

I think it’s because we don’t have real summers here. So, the change is just one of more grey. Not the longed respite from the sun that so many of you crave after a hot, hot, hot summer.

But despite the perpetual gray, there is little doubt that the season is about to change. From the downtown merchant windows to the middle school boys sporting back-to-school crew cuts, summer is ending in the most traditional of ways. We are charging full speed toward September and before we know it we will have to pin our hopes for warmth and balmy weather on another year. Haul out the Halloween decorations, apple pie recipes, and your charge card for school clothes, this is it. Gear up, charge up, prepare: fall is coming in just a short month.

Me? I’ve been spending my last days of summer attempting to get my studio in line. No matter how I try to schedule it, I’m not seeing the finish line before the beginning of autumn. However, I’m motivated and spending most of my days in the deep end of a bucket of Aloe colored paint. IZ, bless him, had some mercy on me today and helped. And then when I whined that I couldn’t bare to put yet another photo of a bucket of paint on Evidently, he whisked me off to the beach for a quick dinner. “You can put a picture up of the Ocean, everybody likes that!”

Indeed we do. It’s soothing and puts our small lives into perspective.

I’m finding that tonight. And I’m looking forward to the change in seasons. I’m attempting to let go of my list and my goals and simply absorb these last days for what they are: the end.

That being said, you know I’ve already started a list of things to do for fall. Don’t worry, I won’t make you slog through it… at least not tonight.