Remember that Don Henley song, Boys of Summer? It’s one of those songs that reach out from my childhood and dump a lot of memories for me — most of them good. One of my favourite times of year has been the twilight of summer. Maybe it’s because I’m a geek, but I love the smell of office supply stores whenever Back to School sales are on. I love the hints of autumn in the air. I love how valuable the last days of August feel, knowing that this will be the last chance of getting away with doing nothing until Thanksgiving Monday in October.
My working life has basically ruined the feel of the twilight days of summer, since there is no summer holiday when you work (especially when you work on contract). However, since I’ve been out of work since the beginning of July, these days of August remind me of the Augusts before I graduated. Let’s hope that it really is Back to School (Work) time.
It was a good weekend. I needed it. I have to admit that this past week has been hard on me. We had ourselves a great time at the Waterloo Buskers’ Carnival. We had an acrobatic duo from Japan who were absolutely astounding. They had the audience in the palm of their hands just on the manoeuvres they were doing as part of their warm-up. And when the man started balancing himself on a board placed over a cylinder placed over a board placed over a set of glasses, well… It was amazing.
We also had a great time with “Flying Bob”, a tight-rope walker, who entertained us with a water-balloon sling-shot. What does it say about an audience that we laugh uproariously when mushrooms get launched four stories in the air? “You can get really high on mushrooms!”
Erin and I took our friend Dan to Oakville this afternoon. It’s a long trip, but well worth it once we were able to walk around the downtown. We exerted ourselves by skipping stones (Dan got five bounces out of one, I got four) and we returned to the downtown for milkshakes. We’ve discovered yet another coffee place, this one in George’s Square, with large tables and excellent coffee. Erin wrote some more excellent poetry while Dan prepared his lesson plan for the next semester. I’ve been editing Evening Falls for the Trenchcoat Farewell Project.
Perhaps the key to avoiding depression is staying busy. I’ll be taking a trip into Toronto with my father, and I have a number of resumes to put out this week. Also, Today’s Staffing has told me that they were impressed by my test scores, and would like me to come in and sign a few papers on Friday.
September should be a good month.