Falling Out of Summer

The signs of summer ending are all around, blue and gold balloons adorning the entryway at Fayette, yellow school buses lumbering down the street, and the calendar flipping to September.  Knowing summer has passed and feeling it, however, are two totally different things.  So I give you 10 signs that summer is indeed over:

1. The elevated credit card bill.  Get ready, here it comes. All those summer excursions, back to school shopping trips, and for some with college age children, those “tuition due” notices, all are as effective as an ice cold wave crashing over you reminding you it is time to run to shore.

2. The alarm clock. Whether you just came off a long deserved vacation or had the summer off, it’s time to reset that clock.  The preferred method of sunshine peaking through your window is replaced by an unnatural annoying noise consistent with saying “Yup, it’s still dark, but time to get up and get moving.” If you listen closely I am pretty sure the alarm is laughing at you between blasts too.

3. Jeans.  Alas, no more shorts or capris. Funny thing about not wearing my jeans in the summer, they seem to have the magical power of shrinking inches while sitting in my drawer, obviously resentful of being forsaken for shorts.

4. Routine.  Granted, I personally thrive on routine. Once I am in one that is. Nothing establishes the fact that fun is over quite so fast as scheduling homework, dinner, showers, bedtime, and the 5 loads of laundry that has piled up.

5. Darkness. It creeps up on you similar to the credit card bill and is equally depressing. Before you blink it is dark at 7pm, and yet your kids aren’t in bed. Doesn’t darkness equal sleep?

6. Paperwork. The first few weeks of fall are equivalent to writing a college term paper in the amount of paper generated.  You will complete form, after form, sign your signature so much you can pretend you’re a celebrity and state “I have read and understand the rules” with a small prayer that “the rules” are the same at school as when your child was in kindergarten, the last time you actually read the handbook. 

7. Halloween. Its arrival may be more than a month away, but not all neighbors feel the need to wait.  It is quite different than the Christmas decorations you see in July that are, in that instance, year round nods to the “I’ll do it eventually” lifestyle. Halloween decorations in September are a statement: It’s over. Pass the pumpkin pie.

8. Making Lunches.  I’ll admit I don’t make my children lunch over the summer.  I am only sure they eat based on the grocery bill.  But with September comes my “balanced lunch” urge.  Each lunch I pack must contain a sandwich, a drink, a fruit and a treat.  It may also be noted in this regard, it is not Fall until my son and I lock into the “apple battle of wills”, where the apple I pack is returned by him and repacked by me each school day until someone gives in…usually the apple itself.

9. Football.  It is no longer baseball turning to football that signals Summer  as in the past, since I am pretty sure baseball runs until Christmas now. It is knowing now that football has returned,  my disappointment in the Mets can be overshadowed by my disappointment in the Jets, an annual Fall tradition.

 10. The final visit to the beach.  Nothing feels more Fall like than packing up the beach chairs, storing the umbrella, pulling on the sweatshirt and brushing off the sand. Sitting here typing now in my sweats, sipping hot coffee and eating warmed apple (somebody has to eat the apple) I know summer has ended even if the calendar doesn’t quite agree.  Fall has arrived, it’s a beautiful thing.