Sweating it Out

Summer is officially over.  The sun knows it and has started to take a little time off by rising later and setting earlier.  The trees know it and they are dropping acorns, pecans and leaves.  The  kids know it because they are back in school.  Saturday afternoons and nights know it because now they include college football.  I do love fall, even the air outside turned from hot and humid to mild and much less humid.... for a few days.  This got my hopes up that fall was legitimately here.  I fall (pun intended) for this evil trick every year, I should know better by now.  Fall (weather) does not truly arrive in Houston until well after Halloween in spite of all the traditional signs....silly me.  Shorts and tank tops it is....with boots.

Re-entry this year has gone smoother than usual. The first week home was spent bonding with all of the things I miss while we are at the farmhouse.  Things like my daughter, son-in-law and beautiful grandson,  my house, my golf group, and all the traffic on the freeways. Usually, after a few days of unpacking and moving back into my house I find myself wondering why I'm here and not still up there.  This year I know I am right where I should be, in spite of the weather.  Yes, I may complain about the weather in every paragraph...you would too if you lived here.

Look who came over for dinner!

Something else in the air, other than heat and humidity, has been love.  We are at the age where all of our kid's friends and our friend's kids are getting married.  Over the last month or so we have been to two weddings and one engagement party and are heading to another wedding this weekend and two more are on the horizon for next spring.  With all these weddings and lovely young couples I find myself somewhere in between feeling ancient and inspired.  There were two "close to home" experiences at the recent weddings.  At the first one, the gospel reading was the same one read at our wedding 38 years ago.  I was verklempt to say the least.  I elbowed TJ as soon as the priest started reading the passage,  Matthew 5:13-16 and when the priest mentioned in his homily that maybe someday, 25 (or38) years from now, the couple might elbow each other when they heard the same reading at another wedding, I was a goner.  The second "close to home" moment was when my nephew and his mother danced their first dance to the same song my son and I danced to 5 years ago at his wedding.  I just love weddings!  Can't wait until this weekend and another family wedding!

The most recently married couple and the longest married couple at the wedding.
Makes me feel happy...and old.

Finally, in a totally unrelated and random topic but still something that makes me sweat ....
Being back in the states preceeding this election has been surreal and unsettling.  I keep waiting for someone to say, "joke is over...gotcha" and present candidates with vision and principles....honesty and ethics would be nice too, liberal and conservative.  Unfortunately, my jaded view of politics is only being confirmed.  I just want to be able to vote for someone I am proud to vote for.  How did we get here?  Ugh!
And that's all I have to say about that.  Have a great week and enjoy the fall weather!