A Longing for Summer

We're not even into the month of December yet and I'm already starting to miss the summer season. I think what brought this feeling on was looking at a variety of summer-time pictures on the local newspaper's website. Just seeing everything green - from the leaves on the trees to the grass on the ground, really made me miss summer. There were pictures of people in their swim suits jumping into the lake to cool off and surfing. Children were eating ice cream and playing baseball. Families were enjoying the local events and watching a parade go down their city streets. It's the feeling of summer in these pictures that have awakened my summer senses and then I realize that we won't be able to experience these feelings again for another four or five months. And winter hasn't even started yet.

It's nothing to worry about, though. It's just a bit of sentamentalism on this last weekend in November. To be honest, we've had a nice fall season; November in particular, with warm conditions and hardly any sign of winter. We had our fair share of winter weather in October, but the snow melts so quickly this time of year that it was gone in a few days. We are now into the holiday season as we have passed Thanksgiving for another year. It doesn't really feel like the holiday season for me yet until we get a little snow on the ground and the Christmas music really starts to play often on the radio. People are already in the stores taking advantage of the stellar deals at five and six in the morning while I am quite contempt staying in bed and getting my full eight hours of sleep. When I see pictures of people lined up outside of the stores so early in the morning and then hear horror stories of people being stepped on and items being "stolen" from out of their carts; that's enough for me to stay home. Yes, the deals are tremendous at those early hours in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving, but it's only a gimmick that the big retailers are providing. They are jump-starting their holiday sales season and they do it every year. Needless to say, I won't be in any big rush to go to the stores the day after Thanksgiving in my lifetime.

I had a rather nonchalant Thanksgiving, as I had to work afternoon shift. Before our family dinner, I finished putting up the last of the Christmas lights on the house. I usually start putting them up around Thanksgiving and it's even better to put them up when the weather is still nice and there isn't two feet of snow on the ground. Then, my parents and I had an enjoyable feast with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pie, and all of the other usual Thanksgiving dishes. I felt a little disappointed that I had to work Thanksgiving; something I NEVER had to do in my life before. I remember when I was in school, we'd had a nice four-day weekend and I looked forward to the days off so much. Now instead of having time off during Thanksgiving, I'm working. Quite the reversal now when we grow up. But the pain of working Thanksgiving was softened by the fact of earning double time in a half. I guess it's not so bad afterall.

Well, I'll keep this blog relatively short. There will be more in the days to come. :-)