Monday, September 1, 2014

It’s the end, the end of the summer days

End of summerWell, hello, you little maniacs!

Did you miss me?!

I’m alive and kicking, but decided to take the summer off. No apologies this time for not updating sooner, because I made the decision to take a break and I don’t feel even a little bit bad about it! (Okay, maybe 5% bad. But that is within the margin of error.)

It’s been a busy and fun summer, and I just decided to go with that and not feel obligated to write about everything. Plenty of updates on Facebook and Twitter (you can find me @Luvrte66), but I think all of us who are still writing blogs know that the readers just aren’t there like they used to be. I’m okay with that, although I did get quite a thrill when my hits went through the roof when Duran Duran posted a link to my review of my friend Andy’s book Beautiful Colors on their Facebook page! I do still enjoy writing, so I’ll ease back into it as we head into the winter and things settle down.

Man, we’ve had some fun. We went down to Indianapolis with Shane and Matt to see Presidents of the United States of America and then Smash Mouth; we went to a couple of RiffTrax movies; we went to several local events like Art Beat and seeing my friend Jim’s band High Gravity play; got to see a couple of Silver Hawks games; we got to party with some of my former coworkers when our friend Aubrey got married. We had our annual vegecation in New Smyrna Beach in July, and on the drive back, stopped in Atlanta to do a Walking Dead filming location tour, which was so awesome. Then we spent a couple of days in Nashville, where we visited the Johnny Cash Museum (it was wonderful), went to Printer’s Alley, and went honky-tonkin’ on Honky Tonk Row. It was an unusual weekend when we didn’t have something going on! As much fun as we had with all of these things, we appreciated those downtime weekends so we could recharge our batteries.

Our latest projects are getting ready to have our friend Mark come out from Omaha to spend a long weekend with us. We’ll be taking an overnight trip up to Detroit so that he can see his family, and we’ll be meeting up with some friends while there. I’ve also been busy planning a house party at Shane and Matt’s for later in September, where Bob Walkenhorst of the Rainmakers will play an acoustic show for a small group of us. I’ve loved Bob and the Rainmakers for going on three decades, so it is going to be wonderful to meet him and hear him play in such an intimate setting!

I’ve also been working on setting up a big vacation in October in Vegas, baby! A bunch of family and friends are converging on Sin City for a long weekend of partying friendship and fun. We’ve got people coming from the Detroit area, Texas, and California, and will be meeting up with several friends who live in Vegas. The long weekend will culminate with a meet-up for all of us at the Hofbräuhaus, an exact replica of the Munich Hofbräuhaus. We have some other fun things planned, and Ken and I will meet with Shane and Matt a few days before in Phoenix. Ken has a business thing he needs to go to, but we will definitely be hitting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West while we’re there.

We’ve also had some very positive things happen on a personal level, and I’ll just say that I am very happy for Ken. Reconnections are great...never give up! There were positive things on a professional level for him, too, with a change of duties and director status at the company where he works. I’m very happy for him about that, too!

I always feel a little blue this time of year, because I love summer. It is definitely my favorite season. I love the warmth, I love sunbathing on the deck while reading and listening to music, and I especially love wearing as few clothes as possible. I don’t look forward to wearing all those clothes in the winter! I’m a big fan of not wearing pants. It’s not officially the end of summer yet, but doesn’t the end of August always feel like the end? It does for me. It seemed official this past weekend when I had my birthday, then celebrated with 80,000 of my closest friends on Saturday as the Notre Dame football season kicked off with a win against Rice. Go Irish!

As much as I hate to see the summer wind down, we have ND football, basketball, and hockey games to look forward to this fall and winter. In fact, we just got hockey season tickets! There are many fun things to look forward to, including a visit from our nieces and their family from San Diego over the holidays and some fun shows at the Morris for the Broadway Theater League.

But it still makes me sad when I fill the hummingbird feeders for the last time of the season, using extra-sweet nectar as they prepare to make their long flight south. I did that yesterday.

Farewell, summer. I’ll miss you. I’ll see you next year, though!

Please enjoy this song from Green Day. This is the aural equivalent of my feelings about the bittersweet end of summer.

3 comments:

  1. Put some pants on, you maniac! And make sure they're not linen- it's now officially after Labor Day!

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  2. the thing i hate the most about summer ending is having to wear shoes all day again!

    xxalainaxx

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  3. It was a blast finally meeting you guys!

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