Dog Days of Summer

It seems we've entered the so-called dog days of summer. The weather lately has been dog-dayish, temps around 90 and humidity to match, with little or no rain. Seems that with these days comes the fast retreat of summer into fall. Here's some signs that this is coming to pass.

• Son Matt has been corn detasseling for the past two weeks, with his last day in the fields today. And tomorrow morning he starts band practice with the Columbus High band. Yes, school is looming large on the radar screen, with Matt's first day as a freshman being August 12th. In between now and then he has band practice, band camp (where he learns how to march), his first experience marching in the Columbus Days parade, and turning 15 and (maybe) passing the test to get his learner's permit to drive. Yes, that is scary.
• The annual Columbus Downtown Runaround running event was held yesterday morning. This is always a sign that the summer is far spent. And this year, daughter Hannah and I did the 2.1 mile run together. Hate to say it, but I kind of outran her, she had to stop several times to walk. But a few blocks from the finish line, as she was walking and we were being passed by some guys I work with, I told her that she didn't want to get beat by a bunch of old guys. Which was all it took to get her sprinting to the line ahead of me. It was fun to do this with Hannah though, and afterwards I felt so good I went out for a 32 mile bike ride.
• Speaking of biking, July has been bicycle month at our house, sort of. I've been trying to put in miles towards my 1000+ goal, so far am at around 650. Son Mike has also started cycling and has been pretty consistent at getting up early and going out for 15-25 mile rides. In fact, he and I are going to do a 30-mile group ride in Hastings in a couple of weeks, part of the Kool-Aid Days celebration (Hastings, NE is where Kool-Aid was invented, in case you didn't know). And July also means the main event for cycling nuts like us - the Tour de France. And having real cable and a big screen TV this year means we've been able to watch daily live coverage of le Tour. For those of you non-cycling types, it ended today. Carlos Sastre from Spain won, from Team CSC. Mike even bought a real Team CSC jersey. At least he looks fast...
• Speaking of Mike, he's starting his last month of summer vacation as well. End of August he heads for Israel for the semester at IBEX. He's starting to wind things down a bit with his internship at church, finishing up the second of two classes he's taken over the summer in the next couple of weeks, and hopefully being able to work more hours schlepping orders and earning tips at Applebees to stash some cash before his summer ends. I keep hearing rave reviews of his teaching from people who have been in his class on Haggai this past month. I think it's been a really good experience for him as he prepares for ministry.

So once again, summer has flown by. Funny how when I was a kid, summers seemed really short too. Then because school always seemed to start too soon. Now because there's just so much activity that it's hard to keep perspective. I guess the older I get, the more I regress to being a kid. Oh well...