Verdict on the Summer of 2024

 

Wow, that went fast.

Summer started for me when Little One swept in from Europe back on May 18. Three whirlwind months later we packed her up and dropped her off at school for Junior year, a 45-minute not-too-far but not-too-close drive away. It’ll be a week tomorrow, and already the house seems much more quiet, even though she’s often quiet as a mouse herself.

Though I’m blue at the moment, the summer had its high points. But also, bizarrely, it seemed empty to me, and I feel much like one of those wind-up figurines that parades out of a medieval clock every hour on the hour to circle about doing its thing and then returns inside. A lot of the summer felt rote, by the book, task A to task B to task C wash rinse repeat ad infinitum.

My life here has kinda devolved into pure routine: Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the office doing accounting; Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays hanging in the home office doing accounting. Mow the lawn and trim the hedges every ten days. Water the grass every other day. Put out the trash and recycling every Sunday night. Church. Chipotle on Friday nights.

The highlights were Patch’s confirmation ceremony and the party that followed. Father’s Day was an enjoyable experience for the four of us and not just me. We had a unique Fourth of July where we kinda snuck into an event, watched a brilliant fireworks display, then snuck back out, avoiding all sorts of traffic and the oppressive humidity of the day. I bonded with my dog the two weeks the girls went away to Pennsylvania, followed immediately by another week when they left with the Mrs. to visit her mom in South Carolina.

I continued bonding with my youngest for Thursday movie night (a routine I fully enjoy). We watched some interesting flicks (“psychological thrillers” is the term she uses), ranging from A Beautiful Mind and Awakenings to A Perfect Murder and Psycho II. We still do Saturday errands together, and we did that with her older sister when she wasn’t working her summer job, an activity that I heartily enjoy with my girls and have since they were toddlers.

Me, I look back and feel somewhat empty. Yeah, that fence thing took a full work-week out of my life, spread out over eight summer weeks. But I didn’t really accomplish anything of note. Yeah, I burned my way through five Tom Clancy re-reads from May to August, and that’s all fine and good, but I didn’t do anything creative, other than these scattered blog entries, and that’s a growing thorn in my side.

A couple of days ago I pulled out an old notebook and did some brainstorming – I wanted to list ten projects I could do. No limitations, no prejudgment, no holds barred. Only things that I would like to spend my time on, even if ultimately they came to nothing. After 45 minutes I came up with six ideas. This’ll be a subject of a future post, but I’m hoping these will inject a spark into the daily grind of existence.

Perhaps this is a bit of existential angst that’s come over me. I do have a birthday coming up.  But life is not all meaningless for me; far from it and I don’t want to give that impression. My reading ranges all over the board and is a source of education and entertainment for me. I listen to all sorts of music daily and play my acoustic guitar at least 30 minutes a day (“Ramble On” is my latest obsession). I’ve been working out since the end of July and have the physique of a young Schwarzenegger (when he was about 12, I’d estimate 😊). The Mrs. and I do periodic date nights and we generally enjoy our time together, as much as the average couple married for 23 years. I walk around the ponds by my house, I chat with the people at work, I’m soda and booze free and have a clean bill of health from the docs.

Sigh.

Time’s just going by too fast.

Verdict on the Summer of 2024?

Solid B.