Shorter Days...

As we're about to go "under the (heat/humidity) dome" again this week, I'd like to remind everyone that the days are indeed starting to get shorter and though these are the dog days of summer, we've passed the mid-way mark of the season and are marching closer and closer to autumn. (September 22 this year).  Maybe it doesn't feel like it, but it is true.

Nowhere is to more obvious than early in the morning.  Just before summer officially began, I could see daylight beginning to come before five in the morning.  Even starting a walk at 4:30 or so and light would be beginning to appear.  The world would be clear and visible by 5:15.  Now, just about two months later, the darkness does not start to fade until nearly 5:30.  And the evenings where the faint light would still be in the sky at 9:00 will now be a memory an hour earlier. 

Yes, the days ARE getting shorter and summer is coming to an end.  School will be starting in my town in a little less than a month. (I know in some areas it's already begun!)  The season of suntan lotion will be morphing into pumpkin spice.  Sunflowers will be replaced with corn stalks.  Bathing suits will be banished for another year and the hunt for the perfect Halloween costume will begin.

While all the seasons may be the same "length" according to the calendar, summer seems to be the shortest of them all.  Days may be longer (or at least day light), but they flash by.  Or so it seems to me.  There is much to enjoy and much to do every summer and I try to take advantage of it all.  Yet, here were are coming to the end.  Camps are wrapping it up.  Vacations are coming to an end.  (And sadly so will be the less trafficked roads to work.  Of course for those who live by the beach this is a time of "hurrahs" as those annoying tourists start to pack up and go home.)

The longer days have flown by.  Shorter days harken the end of the season.  Before it’s over take a moment to savor it.  It will be gone all too soon.