Summer Shade in anticlimatic

The fair was this week, and we went, though it seems like just last week we were at last year’s fair, so I’m not sure how a year disappeared on me so quickly. Time gets harder and harder to track, I’ve discovered, the further away I get from the trauma bond I had with public education’s ‘8-4; September to June’ schedule.

Remember those first few years in the adult workforce, just after leaving school behind? That feeling of guilt, or being an imposter- anytime I knew school was in session, but I was not there. In my case, it was working in a cafe- watching the sun rise out the barred window in the back, two stories up in an old block storefront that used to be a business college if the massive fading letters on the side of building were to be believed. You could see the lake from there. Not much of it, just a sliver of silver- or orange, in the morning.

It’s odd watching society collapse at about the same rate as I age. Not sure if it’s soothing, or additionally depressing, but it’s…something. Some kind of simpatico with nature is nice.

When I was born my dad turned the upstairs of our old house into an apartment, and my great grandmother moved in. She had a mini version of just about everything up there- a bathroom, bedroom, living room with TV, and kitchen. As a kid, it was small but not microscopic to me. If I was not getting along with my parents, I could just zip up the stairs and my grandma would make me some potato soup or no-bake cookies and I’d watch some of her television programming from the corduroy chair parked nearest the TV. It was a second home, but compounding even that was another grandmother- not another GREAT grandmother- my dad’s mom, lived literally one city lot to the south, on the other side of the alley that separated 3rd street from 4th street.

Three homes in one. It was a magical time.

Sarah and I spent the weekend up north. We stared at a fire from beach chairs in a stoned stupor, listening to the cedar crackle and the waves crash until well into the wee hours of the morning. She slept in, but I rose early and went fishing. The day was clean and gorgeous. Only had 5 worms and not a whole lot of time, but Gutport provided me with 2 good sized bass. I cut their throats on the spot and let them into my bucket of water to bleed out while I made my careful way back around the reef to the launch. Stopped to swim at a nice sand bottom beach on the way.

Usually the fair marks the end of summer, but today was a welcomed surprise return. Love it when that happens.

This guy’s voice is summer incarnate to me- mostly thanks to Nellie.