The morning is pretty. It is still. The wind blew itself out last night. The rain stayed a while then it too left. The muggy air is gone. The sky is blue, a darkish blue. It is 80° but it is supposed to get hotter. The back of the house, though, is still cool. The sun has yet to make its way around. The dogs, as is their usual habit, are having their morning naps. Both are sleeping on the cool floor.

Tuesday has little to commend it. It is an ordinary day. Seldom does anything happen on a Tuesday. It just sort of moves the week along.

August is the summer’s last hurrah. It is also the hottest month. I always thought the heat happened so we’d look forward to September and cooler weather. It made sliding into the start of school easier. Woolworth’s was our go to back to school store for supplies. We’d walk uptown with my mother. We’d buy a book bag, a pencil case, crayons, just a six pack, note paper and a lunch box. I loved my new pencil case and used to open it just to check out what was inside. Besides the pencils, there was a ruler, a pink eraser, five small colored pencils, a pencil sharpener and the triangle. I never knew what the triangle was used for. I just made straight lines with it. Much later I found out it was a compass which sort of confused me at first. The only compass I knew indicated direction. I used to pack my school bag over and over, sort of test runs before the big day.

Every summer’s day was filled with fun, some with swimming or bike riding or games and crafts at the playground. After a while, though, they all sort of blended together. I didn’t want to admit it, but summer had become a bit boring. Nothing was new.

Time kept moving faster. The end of summer and the start of school was nipping at our heels. We still had new school shoes’ shopping and clothes’ shopping for parts of uniforms we had grown out of or which looked the worst for wear, but those shopping trips weren’t fun. The shoes had to be sturdy. The uniform was boring, just a blue skirt, a white blouse and a cowboy sort of blue tie. They sort of lent themselves to the acknowledgment that summer had already had its heyday.

This entry was posted on August 4, 2026 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.