CNN this weekend has an interesting commentary called, “The Summer That Never Was“. This piece opines that this summer never quite felt like summer, what with the weather and the economy.
That’s certainly true here. Normally we would have had almost a month of 100°+ days, but we’re really only had a few weeks. We took a vacation, but it wasn’t that restful. But it’s not just summer that is off: I’m wondering if life is off somehow. Certainly spring didn’t feel like spring, and winter hasn’t felt like winter for a few years now. Life goes on — the same ‘ol same ‘ol — but the enthusiasm seems to wither with age. I certainly feel the lack of that summer feeling is due to exhaustion. We’re exhausted from worrying about finances. We’re exhausted from the overly-partisan political debates. We’re exhausted from the excess noise around us. We’re exhausted from the traffic and the seemingly endless disasters of one variety or another on the news. We’re exhausted from the unrepaired streets, the schools that always seem to have inadequate funding (there’s a good article on how this is affecting religious institutions in today’s LAT). We’re tired of the constant appeals for money from all corners — while I’m sure we all want to help, the funds for giving just aren’t always there.
Normally, this all lets up for the summer, but for some reason, it didn’t. It kept pound-pound-pounding away. People didn’t go away on vacation – so traffic stayed heavy. Although the election was done and over with, the partisan bickering continued and intensified. The pressure just didn’t let up.
So let’s just declare Summer over. ’twas a bust this year. But Fall… Fall should be better. The turning leaves (oh, right, we don’t have those in socal), the cooling days (oh, right, they get hotter out here), the fresh crisp air (oh, right, fall is brush fire season). Hmmm, perhaps we should try to make the last few weeks of summer the best they can be, instead.
As for me, however, I’m off to Baltimore for the week.
