Lazy Days of Summer

Lazy Day

Summer is hitting that time when things slow down. I don't think it's actually possible to speed up anything once August arrives. Maybe that's me, or maybe that's Florida.

After years of drought, we seem to have finally gone back to the normal cycle of Florida summer days. Lovely cool mornings. Sweltering afternoons with relief in the form of thunderstorms, which bring down the temperatures briefly before the sun turns the rain to steam and heats things up again before the sun goes down. It's draining to the body, this yo-yo of weather that happens every day.

July is busy. It just is. It starts off with a bang, literally, with the Independence Day holiday. People rush around doing vacation things or riding bikes or going to camp.

But with the turn of the calendar to the next month, there is the feeling of endings - and people slow down in an effort to drag out the last days of summer before school starts, before work begins again in earnest leading up to the Christmas break.

The newspaper has been flooded lately with "Back to School" ads, but no one's rushing to buy supplies. I bought most of ZBoy's last week when I had a couple of free hours. The back-to-school ads are coming out earlier and earlier, mimic-ing Christmas displays that now show up before Halloween. Way too early for anyone to think about that faraway date. It's only my own urge for organization and avoidance of crowds that made me purchase supplies so early.

And it is early. There are two and a half weeks to go before school starts. Parents will begin trickling into stores this week, but the week before classes begin will turn into a stampede for looseleaf notebook paper, pocketed folders, number two pencils and glue sticks. Kind of like the last days before Christmas.

ZBoy is off this week but returns for one more week of camp next week. Then he's got the week before school starts free. No one should work or have camp the week before school.

We have no plans. We're just going to spend those days however we want to, watching them go by... and being lazy.