Summer don't leave me

This time of year is very hard for me.  I love summer, and it's always gone in a blink of an eye.  It is especially difficult this year because we had a pretty major winter, then we had no spring, and our summer was not much to write home about either.

It makes me sad.

I like all the seasons, but I love summer.  It is always very difficult to have summer end, and I am always plagued by threads of depression that always surprise me, because I am never depressed. Except for this time of year.  So while I shouldn't be surprised, it is still all just weird to feel sad and out of sorts and then to top it off, summer really is evaporating into thin air ... and in truth it feels as though it was only weeks ago that I was wondering when the snow was going to melt in the front yard and I really can't imagine that we are headed into winter ALREADY and I am not sure I can stand it ... and well.   It definitely gets worse with each passing year ... or perhaps just because summer is becoming a long weekend.

This past week I have been eking out every last drop of summer.  On Wednesday my sister and I took the boys out of school a little early so that we could all go out on the boat.  It was a beautiful day and we had the lake to ourselves.  It was like being in an amusement park with no other people! ... the lake was like glass, the sun was hot and we toodled around the lake and swam, and later went out to dinner.  It was awesome.

Then yesterday we went to the beach -- and it was incredibly hot!  Just how I like it.  It was too hot to just sit, we had to keep going in the water, which had intense waves due to the hurricane that is making its way up the coast (or tropical storm, whatever!)  There was a wicked rip tide and current, and later in the day several people needed to be rescued because they couldn't get back in.  There is something so invigorating about swimming in water that can turn so quickly.  We were all (my sister, Maddie and my niece Emma) riding waves when there was suddenly a trio of big ones.  I dove into the first one, watched the second one come and decided to ride that one in, stood up, turned around and saw this absolute towering wall of water descending upon the others.   What did I do?  I turned tail and ran toward shore and was still swept up in its churning frenzy.  My sister was washed up nearby, her hair was askew, she was choking and spitting out water, and the girls came in to tell her everything she had done wrong!  Oh, it was a perfect day at the beach!  Loved it.  I had one episode where the wave was huge and I dove into it, but it was too late, the curl was just right to toss me forward and I was writhing about in panic for a few seconds before I was spit out unceremoniously on the sand, water gushing from my nose and mouth.

Loved it.

We left the beach when the sun started to fall behind the dunes, and then went to this cove and had lobster.  Which was fun with Maddie and Emma, since they hadn't really had it before.  They had no clue how to eat it, and in the end, Emma decided it was too gross.  It was about 7:30 when we climbed back into the Jeep, and it was incredible how warm the temperature still was.  Almost 80!  I mean, that is like summer!  I didn't even have to turn the heat on.

But on the drive home ... the temp went from 79 to 67, and I admit my head was frozen by the time I pulled into the driveway.  Which made me sad, because I love driving around topless in the Jeep (yeah, and without the roof up too!!!) and it's just another thing I have to mourn.

BOO HOO.