to say goodbye to August

It is the last evening of the last full month of summer. And this one has been a decent one. I know that for a lot of reasons it has been horrible. The forest fires in BC, the flooding in Houston has been catastrophic, the drought that we are experiencing has begun one of the earliest harvests I can remember in my life, but you know what, no mosquitos. This year will go down in my history book as the year without Manitoba's provincial bird.

Photo by Boris Smokrovic on Unsplash
If you are from the prairies, which, if you are reading this there is a good chance that you are, you will know the torture that these things are. Especially for me. This year because of all of the drought and the forest fires they just haven't been able to propagate. And that has been amazing. Most summer nights you spend either dowsing yourself in harmful chemicals to keep the mossies at bay for 20 minutes, or you just don't go outside. Only here do you want to sit in the trajectory of the smoke from the campfire - suffocating in the smoke - just to keep the bugs off of you.

With the end of the best month of the year I say good bye to a few things. I say goodbye to another year put behind me and head full force into the next. I say goodbye to hours of bored bliss in my backyard as I head back to teaching... for like the fifth time, I guess the HR lady was right, it is Hotel California, you can check out anytime you'd like but you can never leave...  I say goodbye to summer. I know there are technically 21 more days left, but once the kids are in school, the shouts of joy at the splash park are quieted, the smell of bon fires and burnt sugar goes away, we all start talking about fall. We make our weather predictions and reference the almanac. Sidewalk chalk gets replaced with pencil cases and book bags (or back packs for all you strange people out there that call it that).

I am not sad, I like the changing seasons, this one came and went faster than any before ever has, perhaps it has to do with the passing of time. It all rolls over. One month after another. So I put away the unused bug spray. See you next year, August. I love you.

That's all.

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