Summer: Now You See It, Then You Won't

Well, it's almost here.

Labor Day Weekend.

For anyone who may not be familiar, it is the day the U.S. takes off of work to celebrate . . . well, work.  That's the official story.  The unofficial story:  This is the weekend when we all take one last look around, say goodbye to summer and welcome fall.  It is the weekend, in my house, at least, in which we literally morph from summer to fall.  No equinox business needed in this house; we go by the calendar.  Right now, Friday afternoon, it's still summer.  Come Monday evening, it will be fall.  Today, at the grocery store, watermelon seemed like a possibility.  Come Tuesday, watermelon will seem out of season and squash will be front and center.  It happens that fast, for me anyway. 

We never travel or have any big plans for Labor Day weekend.  It's just too close to school or, as is the case this year, school actually has begun.  So we'll kick around the house, cleaning up the yard, clearing the deck of all the little things that have accumulated there over the summer:  my son's portable greenhouse, my husband's outdoor extension cord, my decorative birdcage out there awaiting a hosing off, and my daughter's rock collection.  We'll put away the extra lawn furniture, leaving just enough for us -- visitors won't be sitting out back anymore this year.  We'll be dumping out containers of annuals and stopping my son from sneaking them all inside to be raised (so he thinks) as houseplants.

I'll get my husband to restring my laundry line.  It snapped the other day just as I got all the kids' school uniform slacks hung out.  Not a good morning.  Nothing more fun that going back out, not more than 5 minutes after hanging it all, to pick the currently wet and formerly clean laundry out of the mulch and bare dirt (yard renovations continue), and fire them right back in the wash machine.  No, not good.  

Then, hopefully, we'll finish the roof on the chicken coop.  Yes, it is possible, the coop -- the essentials of it, at least -- COULD maybe, MIGHT maybe, POSSIBLY hopefully be finished this weekend.  This is the very last of it other than little cutesy things that we will do as the spirit moves us.  I can't believe it will finally be finished.  It looks great.  I will share photos with you all when it's done.  That could be as early as Tuesday!

Let's see, what else . . .

Grilling.  We always grill a lot over Labor Day weekend.  I think we'll start out easy tonight and just do hamburgers and french fries.

So, reading this through, it strikes me as a lot of work for not working.  Hmmmm . . .

I guess it's a lot of work changing seasons all in one weekend.