Labor Day Weekend

 The way the calendar falls, Labor Day is late this year.  (Actually as late as it can be!)  And as it sometimes is, it is the weekend before my wedding anniversary.  (30 years!  Amazing right?  Where did the time go?)

This time of year is probably my favorite.  I love Labor Day weekend.  (And thank you to those who made it happen:  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Labor-Day and https://www.dol.gov/general/laborday/history)  Although now it does bring back bittersweet memories.

In the past, Labor Day weekend would find me at the NJ Shore.  Before I had my own family, I would often spend the whole week.  The crowds were gone, the weather was still (mostly) warm.  I could sit on the beach and soak up the sun without having to deal with people talking loudly/yelling, and kids walking over my blanket or kicking up sand.  It was peaceful and calm.  (Something we all need.)  

Of course, sometimes it was cold and overcast, which stunk, but...mostly my memories are of sunny days. As it should be when you are thinking about the beach at the end of the summer.

With the birth of our son, things changed, but not tremendously.  We would spend the last weekend before school started (because most of the time the school year began after Labor Day) enjoying the sun and sand.  I still see "my little boy" running up and down the beach, digging holes and grinning. 

Doing so not just at the beach, but bayside too as the end of the year sailing awards were given out.  That was a big part of my parents' life. (And why the annual Sanderling regatta at "the club" was renamed in their honor after my mom died...something that is still hard for me to write.)

Labor Day weekend meant pumpkin spice coffee from Wawa and sipping it on the deck overlooking the lagoon 

Of course that all changed.  I didn't realize that Labor Day 2023 would be the last one I would spend at the Jersey shore.  That we would drop our son off for his first year of college in the morning (his move in time would be 7 AM!) and then in the afternoon head to the shore house which I had inherited.  I thought I/we would spend more Labor Days there, but it was not to be...

By Labor Day 2024, the shore house had been sold (and I'm sure relatively quickly torn down; as Google street view showed me in September 2025) and the house in the Poconos had been bought (something completely unintended and unexpected).  We "moved" in on the Friday of Labor Day weekend and spent the whole weekend unpacking and organizing and trying to figure out things.  (Note:  we are still trying to figure out things.)

Now here we are 2 years later.  It's a cold(ish) morning, but the sun is out.  (Definitely something to cheer about seeing how it's been a very rainy summer.)  My "big plan" is to water the mums that I bought on Friday.  (The mums from the local garden center are amazing and don't break the bank.)  When it warms up I plan on sitting outside and watching the fish fight for food as I throw in some treats.  (It took them a long time to learn that they didn't have to be afraid...although they are still somewhat skittish.)  I'll finish the book I got from the library (since it had been way to long since I'd been to the library with my book project keeping me reading only certain books) and walk back and return it.  (They are closed for the holiday, but have a box where you can return books at any time.)  It will be a good walk. (I've done it twice over the past week...not quite 4 miles around trip, but a good walk and with the price of gas being the highest it's ever been for this holiday weekend, walking is the way to go.)  Hopefully it will be a quiet and relaxing day.  Which is what Labor Day should be about.  Most of us labor way too much.  May today be one of calm and rest.  (And to those who are working today…thank you.  May there be a day this week where you get your own labor free day.)