When *I* was a kid, Memorial Day was not only the last 3-day weekend of the school year, it was pretty signalled the end of the last full weeks of school. Maybe we’d have 4 more days following Memorial Day and then maybe 2-3 days of the week after… BUT THAT WAS THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! WOO HOO!!!! NO MORE BEDTIMES!!! WE CAN WATCH THE ENTIRE EPISODE OF THE A-TEAM!!!!!!
And then we begin one of the summers that the Gen-Xers talked about. “You’re driving me nuts! Get out of the house and I don’t want to see you again before the streetlights come on!” And so we’d go to the park. Or we’d ride our bikes. Or we’d figure out a way to get to the pool. Or we’d go to the woods. And we wouldn’t go home again until the streetlights came on.
Like, on Wednesday or something, we could usually talk Mom into taking us to the library and, on Saturday or Sunday, maybe we could talk her into shelling out for a PG movie at the cinemaplex (there was no way and no how we were *EVER* getting into an ‘R’).
Every now and again, we’d get an invite to a campfire somewhere and do marshmallows and sing songs and, in July, we’d see fireworks.
And then, come the tail end of August, we’d wrap it all up and get back to a half week of school followed by the week with Labor Day in it. And then we’d have full weeks of school until Columbus Day.
It feels like kids these days are in school a lot longer than we were way back when. I just checked and my Facebook wall has people taking pictures of little Bexley standing in front of the Gardenias with captions like “I can’t believe that it’s time for Xth Grade!”
It shouldn’t be time for Xth Grade until the 23rd or 24th.
Of course, the parents I know are saying stuff like “GRAH I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THESE KIDS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL! THEY’RE DRIVING ME NUTS!”
And you can’t tell them “buy them a bike and kick them out until the streetlights come on”.
Anyway, this weekend is the first weekend after the “back to school” nights kick off. Looks like school starts at some point next week. So this is going to be the last weekend with game nights with people squeezing out their very last bit of summer vacation before being stuck within about an hour of the house until Thanksgiving. Game night has been more or less decimated. But it’ll be nice to go to Costco and maybe it won’t be that crowded.
Wait. It’ll be full of people buying school supplies.
So… what’s on your docket?
Aw man, I almost forgot tomorrow is the weekend! Anyway, home reno is hopefully wrapping up – the house is all painted, they just have to put up the (newly painted) shutters and remove the masking paper on the outside. The drywall damage in my sewing room from a roof leak was fixed yesterday and is set to be painted today. The best of the workers (IMHO) is coming to rip up the kitchen tile and fix the subfloor, then I need to pick a new floor covering and apparently next week that goes in. Oh, and he said he’d scrape and paint the front door
Not sure if he’ll come Saturday if he’s not finished with everything but the re-tiling today; last weekend guys did come to finish the priming and do some pick up but we will see. (I could use a day off of my space being invaded but I won’t say no if he offers to finish stuff up tomorrow).
Classes for me start the 22nd and the end of next week is the usual cavalcade of meetings. However, I might skip the “whole faculty” one – two hours in an enclosed space and the scuttlebutt is only half the faculty have elected to be vaccinated so no thanks to that, even masked. (What can they do? fire me? I teach three classes no other person in the department could)
I’m not really ready for classes to start back up. Emotionally, I mean. Logistically and preparation wise I am. But it feels like I didn’t have enough *fun* this summer, in between having to be home to talk with the renovators when they had questions and having no money to do anything….Report
You deserve a vacation. I’d suggest something that costs money but you’re probably sick of spending it.
So just take a day or two, when you can, and sit in your boxers on the couch.Report
After all the reno is done relax and enjoy your new fixed up digs. I know its stressful for you but what a joy once its done. We do all our own work and projects drag on forever some for years now. Enjoy the completion.Report
Exactly. I’ve done both, and the ones I do always seem to peter out about where you just say, “I can live with that.”Report
The sun is setting before 8:00 now, and sunlight is getting a little paler, which means that football season approacheth. It’s my last free weekend before the high school season starts (hopefully my last).
Also, we should start seeing social media posts about tearful parents leaving their babies at college. Always some fun reading.
Seeing a friend’s band play tonight after a cocktail with some friends. Golf tomorrow, then chilling for the rest of the weekend.Report
You know, things might be back to normal enough that I’m going to have to dig out my Broncos lanyard.Report
Oof. I’m about to be one of those tearful parents myself come Monday. It’s a big day!Report
Also, we should start seeing social media posts about tearful parents leaving their babies at college.
What none of the ones that say, “They’re moving out! They’re 18 and not on drugs or pregnant or have gotten someone pregnant! Declare victory!”Report
We did this Monday with the second one to go off to college. The normalcy and naturalness of it was rather nice after the oldest had her senior year of college cut short and ruined with COVID, and the younger ones of course dealing with online school for 15 months over two school years. The normal of dorm move in day chaos was nice. Very Nice.Report
That was us.Report
The first one was a family event where we all moved her in.
The fourth we kinda dropped of at the gate with a duffel and, to be fair, some extra cash.Report
One of the advantages of spending grade school and junior high in a medium-sized town in Iowa — just over 5,000 people at the time — was summers. Library and swimming pool were within bicycle distance. Ditto for a stocked lake for fishing. Kid-oriented movie every Saturday afternoon at the local theater with their A/C on high. Far enough north latitude that sunset in late June was about 9:00. Fairly easy to round up enough kids for a ball game of some sort. From about age 12 up, you could get day-work chopping corn out of the soy bean fields if you needed more cash than your allowance. (Note to screenwriters: if the zombies are coming, corn knives are the weapon of choice. Dirt cheap. If the zombie reaches for you, ZWOP! Take their hand off at the wrist. In hindsight, what were they thinking giving those things to 12-year-olds?) Free-range most of the time.Report
(I’ve never seen a corn knife, I don’t think)
(googles)
OH THAT
Huh, didn’t know that those were called that.
$17.
Not bad.Report
Useful enough that almost every culture in the world, once steel is moderately available, invents some version of it. Minimal blacksmithing skill needed.Report
Corn knife: Scaled down machete.Report
Also Kukri. Falcata. Kopi. Parang. Bolo. Cane knife. If you can only take one edged tool with you to camp in the wild, a 15-16″ version of any one of those. They can do all of it, from chopping down small trees to relatively fine work.
And zombies.Report
My familiarity with any and all of those is limited to D&D.
Have you ever read Gary Gygax’s essay on Polearms?
Dude, scroll down to page 50 and prepare yourself for a wonderful 20 minutes spent with a guy who complains that the Ren Faire has sold out.
I hear “Kukri. Falcata. Kopi. Parang. Bolo. Cane knife.” and now immediately think: 1d6.Report