Monday, August 15, 2011

Squeezing a lot into the last bit of summer


I typed that title and immediately it feels wrong. It isn't really the end of summer. Yet schools are getting back in session and the summer merchandise has been moved to the clearance bins. We're tricked into thinking summer is almost over, when in reality we just passed the half way mark. Autumn doesn't officially begin until September 23.

It all makes me a little sad that we barely get into summer mode and we're bombarded with back-to-school sales and school registration. It's getting to be like the Christmas push that once began right after Thanksgiving, but has now moved up to Halloween.

Back-to-school season used to mean mid-August back in the dark ages when school started after Labor Day. It slowly worked up to early August then July. Now stores are putting out back-to-school displays even before the 4th of July. My kids this year had their last day of school June 13. A week later I was seeing back-to-school displays in the store.

August tends to be the month when things slow down if you have children who have been playing baseball or softball or were enrolled in summer classes or camps. So, now we have some free days this week and tomorrow is the last weekday the pool is open. Boo!

I've tried to squeeze in a lot this past week -- water park, festival in Michigan, Six Flags Great America, baseball game. We also had our annual block party this past weekend. Lots of busy days. Just feels funny to be rushing to do things before the end of the season when the end of the season is still 39 days off.

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