End Of Summer Ramblings

Sooooo... the end of summer. What to think about that? Suicide? I guess it is inappropriate to joke about suicide. They tell me with teen agers it is always inappropriate to joke about that. The idea that teen agers have anything to really want to kill themselves about is laughable... until it is not. I have never really suffered from ideations of suicide even as a teenager. I think I had better brain chemistry... then...but I digress.... summers end.

I sent my oldest back to Valparaiso today. As I type he is broken down in Champaign Illinois. As ineptly a named town as there has ever been and exactly equidistant from St. Louis and Valparaiso with what appears to be a broken alternator. It was depressing having him leave and it is even more so with him stuck in Chapaign. Who knows whether he wil find a place to fix it tomorrow. He might be stranded there for the duration. Perhaps he should transfer.

The end of summer always sucks. It comes earlier and earlier each year. I believe I have ranted about that in the past. Summer should of course run Memorial Day to Labor Day (as God intended) but now school starts August 15 whther you like it or not and everyone (other then my friends in the state of Michigan are back in school well before September. It is an abomination.
Pat goes back to Truman on Monday. He will not need a ride either but he will quickly recede on his own into the great waste land that we call Kirksville. He has had a summer of summer school and has resided in our basement once again for a summer without activity and natural light. Still... he will be missed AND by the end of the summer with Sandy working all the time he actually learned to straighten up the place. Not bad for 20 years old.

Having your father in law do a quad bypass this last week did not do a lot to bring the summer to the shining conclusion I would have hoped for. He got through it well or at least sort of well. Heart attack on the table evidently and then 5-6 bad hours of post op where they could not stabilizie him. He is recovering to the doctors satisfaction but is in a lot of pain and is sick a lot. My mother in law is generally performing like a champ but it takes a toll and my wife of course wants to be there for everyone.

My daughter.... she has already re-entered the school environment and has made various announcements and decisions, some of which are as follows:
"School sucks"
"I am so bored already"
"I lost my day planner immediately after I got it"
"The Freshman are fat"
"I am quitting band"
"I think I will major in business in college"
"I am NOT ""in a relationship""
"A Boy is coming down from college to visit"
"It feels like I have been in school forever"
This is all just in a week. And she is only a Junior. Join me, if you will in saying a brief, but heartfelt prayer for the teachers and administrators at Lutheran High School South. On a related note the perennially weak and often embarrassing Lutheran South football team is showing signs of life under it's new Coach. Standing where I am standing, with a team that has not won three games total in four years I am predicting... THREE VICTORIES THIS YEAR! You heard it here first.

“the boys in their summer bands
sweat as they give it their all
the bands might be good
but probably won't last through the fall”
Lucero-Summer Song

The great news at the end of this summer is the Cardinals. Even in the dog days with 40 games left it is exciting. How about that line up now? They have a chance at every spot in the line up. For a while we had only lonely Albert Pujols but now, though not a murderers row we certainly give a pitcher quite a bit to think on. And our pitching, which I have much maligned seems to have gelled. Chris Carpenter (who I belittled the teams investment in) has remained healthy and dominant. Wainwright found his stride and now they have aquired Schmoltz. Schmoltz... who might be old and washed up according to the Red Sox has a competitors heart and it looks like he might still have a live arm. I think he struck out 7 in a row tonight. Give him a lead and he never looks back and he has so much playoff experience. I still remember his dead fish eye stare from the mound whether at Atlanta or Houston... mowing down out batters. Kudos to Cardinal management who in a tremendous public relations coup said “we bought players because the fans suported the team!” Without answering the question about the fans supporting the team for previous two years without opening up their wallets, they did it right, and smart this year. It could be a fun October and even when mourning the end of summer it gives one reason for hope and... perhaps even light.