Saying Goodbye...

By Kirsten Scott

It's been a great summer, hasn't it? I don't know about you, but for me, summer is always a blissful time. We slow things down. We spend time at the lake with no internet and no agenda. We go for canoe rides and long walks. We see friends and let the kids play outside for hours while the grown-ups share an adult beverage and engage in the almost-forgotten art of finishing a sentence.


Oh, sure, I find things to complain about over the summer. This year, we experienced a week of absurdly hot weather -- two days of 106. Days when it was 95 degrees IN MY HOUSE. Horrible. You couldn't sleep. You couldn't exercise. All you could do was sit next to a fan and whimper. Or in my case, whine.

But really, we know summer is a good deal, even when it's miserably hot and humid. This summer, we dragged the family across the country for my cousin's wedding. Here we are, in the beautiful Finger Lakes of New York. We got to hang out with my extended family for the first time in years, and my kids got to play with their cousins and make memories that will last forever.


Of course, this is what summer's all about. Making memories. Doing the things you never make time for during the rest of the year. Jumping in an icy-cold lake just because it's there. Reading wonderful novels that make you forget your worries, and send you deep into someone else's life -- preferably, someone else's happily ever after.


But then comes Labor Day, and we have to pack it all in. We say goodbye to the canoe and the long sunny days and get ready for books and school and crisp fall air. We go back to the life we used to know. The sensible life. The life that pays the bills.

So what are you saying goodbye to this weekend? The lake house? Visits with family? Fireflies? Tell me all about it. You can cry on my shoulder for the cold beer on a warm night, and I'll tell you about the sprinklers and grilling fresh vegetables. And then we'll have one last weekend to do it all, before we welcome fall with open arms.