It's Labour Day today in Canada, same in the United States. As surely as May 24 Weekend/Victoria Day (Canada) and Memorial Day (US) mark the "beginning" of summer, so does this day mark its "end" in both countries. Mind you, there's another three or so weeks left in the actual season as it relates to the Earth's settings, the autumnal equinox falls on September 23rd this year.
Children are either heading back to school this week, or are already there in some cases. Back-to-school shopping is the major expense for parents around this time, and children contemplate whether they are happy or sad that their holidays are over. In Jamaica, it is time for adults to throw around the particularly odious phrase (or, at least, it was to me when I was a student), "Free paypa bun!" (Your free papers are burnt). It used to imply to me that school was some sort of prison your parents sent you to, one of which you were particularly deserving, if for no other reason than you were under-aged and someone else was in charge of your life. Well, joke was on them. I loved school, and looked forward to returning.
This particular summer was less than halcyon, though. Aside from the two weeks we spent in Jamaica, the temperature never rose above 30 *C on consecutive days. I found it particularly offensive this year to hear people complain about how "hot" it was. I might have thought that two years into living in northern ON I would be immune to such statements by now, but indeed my resentment was much worse this year. "Honestly, we have seven months of winter/cold weather, is that not enough for you?", I wonder. I guess some people would complain no matter what kind of weather we have. I find it alarming to realise that several days found me wearing layers, long sleeves, and even sweaters, with temperatures averaging around 10 *C below seasonal averages.
The last three days have been rainy, and grey. I was unable to take Nipper for a long walk yesterday, as much of the day it poured with heavy rains. Towards late afternoon the rain and clouds did clear and let in some sunshine, but this morning was heavily overcast, and the rain started again this afternoon. We managed to get in our weekday half-hour walk this morning, but I spent a lot of it looking at the skies and hoping they wouldn't open up on us while we were still some way from home.
I am hoping that we get a late summer heatwave, the mythical "Indian summer", but I am not holding my breath. All the signs are pointing to a swiftly-coming, long, cold winter. Indeed, there were trees sporting fall colours by the end of July!
Fall is bringing with it new challenges for me, and I am very hopeful that meeting these challenges will take me in new directions. I have been working on getting back into waking early, and will need this "ability" even more as the month of September progresses. The daylight periods will continue shortening, but my "days" will be even longer, and I will need full energy and enthusiasm to take them on.
If summer was only about hot weather and wearing less clothing, I would say I didn't have much of one. As it is also about a break from routine and getting ready for new things, then I will say I had quite the summer, short though it was.
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