August

August--the 8th month of the year and I can't believe that we have already arrived at August but more than that, how the time is flying by already this month.  It seemed like we just kind of slipped from July to August quietly and not noticed at all.

I will say that our summer so far is a far cry than the ones we have had for the past two years.  We didn't have the extreme hot temps in July and so far have only had a couple of days so far this month that we reached the 99 or 100 mark with an index of 108 to 110.  The humidity has been terribly high causing my asthma and allergies to really give me fits so I've been staying inside a lot.

And we've had the strange phenomenon of rain this summer.  The past two summers have been dry and we have had to live with fire danger warnings.  The grass turned brown and crunched under foot but this year we have had the rain, so the grass is green and that just means more mowing and with the cost of gasoline, it is expensive to mow the yard these days.  And when you have as big a yard as I have, it really gets expensive.  I have an acre plus I mow the area out back beyond my fence that I jokingly call the Back 40 but is only about 1/3 of an acre.  So each time I mow the whole yard and Back 40, I'm looking at almost $7.  But I will say it is nice to look out over a green yard instead of a brown one.

This past week hasn't been too good.  A couple of days ago, Foxy was outside and not sure what happened but she injured  her leg.  The vet said she had pulled and stretched the ligaments around the knee cap.  She is on anti inflammatory medication and I'm trying my best to keep her quiet and not moving around that much but she gets excited when it is time to go out and this evening she must have been feeling better or forgot as she jumped up on me wanting to be petted.  I had to scold her which of course hurt her feelings but I didn't want her to injure the leg more.  We go back to the vet on the 22nd and depending on how she is, she may have to have surgery on it.  So I'm keeping fingers crossed she will heal it on her own.

School will be starting up next week.  I can't believe it.  I remember the good old days when school started the day after Labor Day and got out the Friday before Memorial Day.   But then we didn't have all the breaks and holidays they have during the school year now. 

Michele took the kids shopping for school last weekend and I can remember getting new clothes for school but in my day, we ordered our stuff from catalogs, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Alden's, National Belles Hess and probably others.  We usually would get our shoes locally and I know I'm dating myself when I say I could hardly wait to get those new saddle shoes, and later as I got a little older, the penny loafers. 

And of course, going to school on that first day with the new tablet, pencils, erasers and crayons and a ruler.  We didn't have backpacks but we carried all our stuff and made it there with everything in tact.

August is an odd month. Usually the hottest of the summer and in this modern day, gives up its summertime days for school time.  When we used to lie under the shade tree and look at the clouds in sky, now we are huddled in an air conditioned house watching a TV or on a computer or some electronic device, while we wait for the first day of school.  The ice cream freezer is put away, the watermelons have disappeared and we are saying goodbye to summer.  August is just a hot month and has no distinction of its own, unless you want to refer to its days as the "dog days of summer." 

So for now, we'll suffer through the August days as we look forward to September and the beginning of fall.  But let's not rush it too fast, we don't need winter coming around too quickly.