It's just the last gasp for me, the last chance I have to do something just for me. And I'm selfish. I've been a good egg for weeks, moving the kids around, cooking for the wife, being a good neighbor on the block.
But in my last week before my Fall teaching starts, I'm going off by myself to a tiny cabin near a lake in Wisconsin. I have some $9 cigars and some $40 whiskey and I'm leaving the laptop and tablet at home. Ripe will be the drowsy hour, as my man Keats would say.
Q: What will you folks do with your last gasp of summer?
Go visit a high school friend for the weekend. It won't be nearly as exciting as your cabin adventure, but hopefully the effect for me will be the same. Cheers!
ReplyDeletePainting the front porch, which has accumulated a bit of mildew. Touching up scratches and dents in the interior walls. Mowing the lawn.
ReplyDeleteOh, and going through the 50 Years of James Bond collection.
I will lay on my back,
ReplyDeletetry to avoid a heart attack.
Hammock.
ReplyDeleteFind a nice camping spot near a mountain lake. Way off the grid.
ReplyDeleteNo pants.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm moving across the country in 3 weeks, so I have a very full and rewarding plan of visiting all my friends and favorite places in this wonderful city I love. I get to buy a new cell phone (technology!!), a new computer (again!), polish off the last of my syllabi, and tell my online universities to suck it in exactly 9 days.
ReplyDeleteAnd now to that I have to add "no pants" because Walter is, as usual, full of excellent ideas. No Pants August!!
tell my online universities to suck it in exactly 9 days
DeleteThat will feel good, I'm sure. Enjoy it (and the farewell visits, and the new technology). May the move go well!
a reader writes:
ReplyDeleteROAD TRIP!!!! With my High-School Daughter on a 1000 mile road-trip to visit my Sister and Nieces and Great-Niece.
I fear that by the time I figure out what I'd like to do to relax, it will be the first day of classes (or at least meetings). This is the danger of teaching in a July/early August term.
ReplyDeleteI would consider the "no pants" option, but (1)I don't wear pants (at least not as outerwear) very often, and (2) there are men on scaffolding riding up and down outside my window all day for the next week or so (my building is getting new windows). That might be a bit too entertaining for them.
Fall syllabi. I worked all summer, and so I haven't had time to get that shit done sooner.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the quarter system, so I still have a month before we have our week of useless-return-to-school meetings, but I'm frantically writing, writing, writing, to finish a book this month. When people say, "Oh, you are lucky to have summers off," I wonder if they really know what "off" means.
ReplyDelete