Friday, August 17, 2007

The Last Hurrah

It's been a long August here, with no camp for Caleb, insanely hot outside. I'm not always sure to do during these long, formless days. We wind up with scenarios like this:

Caleb (reading from a fast food bag): What's all over the house?
Brandon: Dust.
Me: Dog hair.
Caleb: No. A roof. [Frowns]. Obviously.
Caleb: What always ends everything.
Me: Death.
Brandon: [Raises eyebrows.]
Caleb: The letter "g."

We can barely stand it.

Call me a rigid old wingnut, but I've realized that I'm happiest when I know what I should be doing. This week is the last before school starts and the parenting is easy. We've been shopping for clothes (poor child has had a growth spurt, bursting out of his size 7s like the Incredible Hulk), snatching up school supplies (he insisted on getting his own tape so let wouldn't have to rely on the teacher's), and getting in what time we can at the pool.

Someone in the neighborhood set up a Slip and Slide the other night, and all the kids were out late while the adults milled around with our drinks. The air definitely had that last hurrah feel to it. It was buggy and we all had stuff to do, but we lingered out there because this wouldn't last much longer. Less than a week, and we'd be be forcing the kids into showers and laying down the law with bedtime, but this night, we could be loose, with our beers and our slippery kids and the knowledge that we were in the right. This is what you do when, and because, summer ends.

7 comments:

John said...

Bite your damned tongue.
BTW, I'm liking The Else pretty much, although some songs seem to stick in my brain too long. What are you thinking of it by now?

Anonymous said...

I hate that summer's ending. But I did like Caleb's deadpan joke-telling. Actually I don't know that it was deadpan but that's how I imagine it, especially after meeting him. He seems like a deadpan kind of guy. I said "dead" too much in this comment.

HeatherAnnastasia said...

I don't miss Summer in the Midwest. This year, lazy Summer days are spent at the beach or the skate park.

Domestic CEO said...

Be glad he's at least telling real jokes, and only telling them once. I'll tell my kids a new joke and then they'll retell it back to me and my husband and anyone else who will listen, usually changing the punch line by a word or two each time they recite it so it eventually becomes something vaguely familiar but not quite.

We just started the first of our two weeks between camp and school. I really need to plan something - I don't do well with unscheduled days!

Jennifer said...

I'm liking The Else, too, John--do you like the companion CD? I get that damn "my friends are all nuts" song stuck in my head. I can't tell you how many times Brandon's come into a room and I greet him with, "THEN, THEY'RE RETIRED NUTS!" which makes no sense to him because I'm hogging the CD.

The hard thing about Caleb's joke-telling is that sometimes he actually IS deadpan, but sometimes he's being serious and gets ultra-pissy if he thinks you're laughing at him.

I could use a nice beach trip. We go in the fall sometimes and I get to fulfill my J. Jill catalogue lifestyle fantasy (sweater at the beach! We're going to a clambake!)

John said...

I'm liking the companion CD more with each listen (a couple today). It would have been acceptable as the main release, but it isn't as good as the main CD. Or at least it doesn't have as many mind worms. I'm starting to feel like I've got a brain problem situation on my hands.

Can't you release one of the CDs to Brandon?

Jennifer said...

John, do you download the podcasts? I think a lot of those songs were on there. There's one posdcast that's especially awesome--they do the venue songs, but between songs, there are political-commercial-type things for John Hodgman. (Like, he's better than the man who subletted his apartment because he only got caught masturbating out the window once.)

I'm almost ready to share.