Early to Bed

The alarm is set for the same time as usual and, just in case we might ignore it, Osa-the-Cat begins her insistent call for breakfast a few minutes before it goes off. But it doesn’t seem like morning any more. It’s pitchy black out these days at five a.m. Why does it seem too early in the year for darkness to settle in around us?

At the other end of the day, the chickens are going to roost at least an hour earlier than they did a month ago. As August gets used up, I’ve been trying to remember if summer has always left us so abruptly. I’m sure it was still brightly lit summertime right up until school started when I was a kid. Right up until the day after Labor Day –at least in my mind’s dimming eye. Didn’t we play outdoors after dinner “for hours” until we began lugging homework back from school once more?

Oysterville Regatta 2012

And here it is already. The final week of August. The days may be getting shorter but our calendar still shows Summer Full Speed Ahead. Every little white space is filled with plans for fun, fun, fun! The Randal Bays Family arrives this afternoon for a few days of downtime at the beach! Saturday is Betty Paxton’s 100^th Birthday Party in Ilwaco and the Annual Oysterville Regatta here in the village. Sunday it’s the Williams Family Reunion, this year in Seaview, and the final Vespers service featuring Barbara Poulshock and Friends. And on Monday, more overnight visitors. And then… it’s already after Labor Day!

We aren’t making any Back-to-School plans for this fall, though. Instead, we are making preparations for Nyel’s big quadriceps surgery (or his cane-ectomy as Judy Eron calls it) on the ninth. To say nothing of the three-month recovery period when his leg will be encased in an inflexible fiberglass cast.

We are already looking toward the Christmas holidays and the best present of all – the unveiling of a good leg to stand on! Right in time for the return of longer days!