EASING OUT OF AUGUST

School buses join the traffic. Kids with backpacks trudge toward the nearest bus stop. A heavy rainstorm has greened up our brown lawns almost overnight. The year is moving on.

Today is the last Thursday of August, 2016. Next week we’ll be welcoming September.

But before I let go of this month, I’ve been—you guessed it—making lists.

To Do

-put new expiration sticker on my license plate

-deliver items to Goodwill

-deliver boxes of books and videos to the library for its monthly sale

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To Continue

-sort more boxes of music (started this project several days ago with a goal of one box at a time; and please don’t ask how many more I have)

-cut fabric for pillow cases and blankets for the sewing group at church; these items go to the Neonatal ICU at a regional hospital

-cut even more blankets for Frances (I wrote about her last week) who has already made 15 little blankies and phoned today to say she’s ready for more :-)

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Keep on Top of

-Christmas gifts to make—one down, one in the works; more to consider: make or buy?

-yard work—trim bushes and peonies

-house cleaning

-regular exercise and walking

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Ways to Cope

-meditate; pray (to lighten the load by sharing it with God)

-read (my escape)

-have coffee or lunch with a friend (to remind me I’m not the only one with problems and deadlines)

-a little retail therapy at a fabric shop (to lift my creative spirits)

-watch a movie or TV series I’ve not seen before (especially the oldies that have been discontinued)

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Before August exits stage left, my town gears up for a Labor Day Weekend celebration of classic automobiles. Weekend is a misnomer—events begin the Wednesday before Labor Day and continue into the following week. Already the cars of the '20s and '30s, and the '40s and '50s, have begun arriving. The population swells to staggering numbers, and if you're trying to get anywhere in the city limits you have a challenge ahead of you.

September, after the Labor Day hoop-la, will bring its own demands (I foresee another list-making session). Days will grow shorter (we perceive them as shorter, but we know that’s only the amount of daylight). Temps will drop. Football fans sitting in the bleachers will be wearing sweatshirts and gloves and hats. I won’t need my sunglasses when I leave the Y at 7 AM. I’ll get up in the dark and go to bed in the dark. (Hibernation is looking good again this year.)

The 30 days of September will pass quickly—all the other months have done that as well—and we’ll be looking at pumpkins and ghosts and goulies. And the next thing we know, we’ll be carving turkeys.

I’m not in a hurry to usher out 2016. Don’t get that idea going. I've just learned, from years of experience, that there’s a lot of stuff ahead, time passes quickly, and we need to revel in what we have this very day.

So—it’s still August. Still summer here in NE Indiana.

Enjoy. Wherever you are.