September...already!

Happy Labour Day!

Oddly enough, whether in Canada or Jamaica, this day has always been about doing the very least I can do and still make it through the day.  Maybe because I always work so hard every other day, on a day declared a holiday in honour of workers, I just want to sit on my backside and do nothing.

Today, so far I have managed to fold and put away laundry, and tidy our bedroom and living room, because I didn't get around to it yesterday during my regular housework day.  I didn't try very hard, I will admit, I haven't felt like doing much this weekend, even moreso than my usual "It's the weekend, leave me alone, I just want to vegetate" way.

However, I did manage to go out yesterday and mow the heck out of the lawn.  Most of it, anyways.  Just when I started to feel like I couldn't do much more, G came out and took over and finished up by doing the part of the lawn that is the hardest, the slope leading down to the street level.  Honestly, the state of the lawn was beginning to annoy me, and I am pretty sure the neighbour was giving us the evil eye every time he looked at our lawn and compared it to the pristine verdant carpet he calls his lawn.  We can't afford the lawn guy, but that's no reason to let ours grow over as much as we sometimes do, I am sure.  I like to do things on a regular schedule, but G is not that organised.  He notices things need to be done when they are far gone, generally, rather than relying on a programme of regular maintenance to keep things in check.

I am not sure what happened to August.  That general feeling of running behind that I mentioned in August's post continued right throughout the rest of the month, and it ended as it had begun, with me feeling like I had lost the plot and needed to do something radical to get back on track.  Whatever that radical thing was, though, I didn't quite figure out, so September started the same way.

I did manage to achieve a few things, for one, I hit 8 push-ups and 8 pull/chin-ups in a set.  That, I consider pretty awesome, and can't say enough good things about +Tim Berzins, the coach who got me there.  After an entire month of plugging along at assisted chin-ups and incline push-ups, I felt like quitting and bawling because I wasn't progressing, but he said to just keep working on the assisted movement, and what do you know, the full movement came after.  I've gone back to lifting weights three times per week, and doing yoga two days per week as of August 31, but I am still adding in push-ups and pull-ups to keep that goal in play.

Also in August, I started keeping my Day Book as a Bullet Journal, an analogue organisation system I came across on the Evernote blog.  So far, I think I haven't written as much in it as it is meant to record, but as it's my first month using the system, I am thinking that as I make the system my own, I will record more and more in it.  I am trying to move more towards my Day Book being a log of my day's events, activities, and thoughts, even inspiring quotes, instead of just a planner for work hours and bill payments with a monthly goal/to-do list.

The calendar is sliding towards the coming fall, due on September 23rd.  It is still quite warm, and very summery today (I am typing this wearing tank top and shorts!), after a scary couple of weeks when it looked as though summer was over and cooler temperatures were coming in early.  Thanks to a "Colorado Low", we had a few wet, foggy, cool days when the high temperature hovered in the low 20's and refused to budge much past 21 *C.  However, the summer weather is back, although leaves are changing here and there.  I will "allow" this, it is September, after all.  Personally, though, I am not pulling out any fall clothing before September 23rd.

I am working hard to make sure I don't try to lump the last few months of the year together in my mind, I want to keep looking no further than the current month.  I need to re-set goals for September, add them to my Day Book, and get this month sorted before it also gets away from me.  

Yes, the inukshuk wears a toque.

Nipper and Ariea like to join me for meditation sometimes

Nipper thinks my meditation pillow is his.

Farewell, Summer, I hardly knew ye

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.