From Down Drops the Diver: "A Side Note"
Summer is almost over.
School will be starting soon. Schedules and routines will begin to carve away at time and energies. The seasons will begin their shifting. It's still July, but I can already see a few yellow leaves under the maples. (Hopefully these are a harbinger of a colorful fall, and not a sign of impending drought.) Before we know it, we will wonder where all the leaves went, and The Dreaded Daylight Savings Time will arrive, plunging those of us who toil deep in the windowless bowels of lecture rooms, cramped impromptu conference areas, and ergonomically-challenged office spaces designed by sadists vehemently opposed to the concept of feng shui, to commutes in utter darkness. (This is the part where you may join, with the marching goblins of the Wicked Witch of Western Oz, in singing, "Ohh-wee-ohh, o-waaaay-ohh!")
The lament of teachers and schoolchildren across the country rises into the stifling summer sky, mixed with the sobs of bus-drivers, cooks, janitors and an occasional part-time ice cream truck operator. This mournful chorus is counterbalanced by the long, grateful sighs of soon-to-be-liberated mothers, grandparents, babysitters and (rare-as-hens-teeth) househusbands. It is an annual call-and-response. (This where you may insert the gleeful caregivers as they parody Snow Whites dwarves in singing, "Heigh, ho! Heigh ho! It's off to school they go...")
Soon most households will push the young out of the nest, if even for a few blessed hours. Cats will nap peacefully. Any doors remaining on their hinges will remain closed. Dust will settle.
To the goblin horde, duty calls.
To the rest of you, enjoy for now.
Summer will return.
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