We Had Joy, We Had Fun, We Had Seasons In The Sun

Norman Blake--"Northern Winds" (mp3)
The Broken Family Band--"Diamonds In The Mind" (mp3)

I know I'm a bit obsessed with seasons and passages these days, but I think fall has lost its starting point. Heat and drought makes things in nature happen when they aren't supposed to, and so things are cranking up and winding down in the ground around here in some crazy ways.

Similarly, in the human world, things are ending and beginning in crazy ways. Fall can be the best time of year for sports, music, and weekend mornings, but there's still a summer hangover to be dealt with.

Here's what I'm trying to process right now:

My child is gone to college; I got misty-eyed during the rerun of Apollo 13 last night, when they made it through the atmosphere, when I knew they were going to make it through the atmosphere.

We're two weeks into school and we're about to get a day off. After the summer in Korea, my students here seem unfocused and uninspired.

College football starts tonight on a Thursday, while Barack Obama will be giving his acceptance speech in a football stadium.

I'm just now starting to get interested in grilling out; I want to do some full-throttle tailgating somewhere, even though I don't have a game to go to.

Jason Kidd has given his Olympic medal to the wife of a casino owner.

Hurricanes are threatening in the Gulf and, always, in the back of my mind, I'm feeling that "New Orleans dread" that I thought I had put away.

Leaves are falling like crazy off my neighbor's tree. I wish he'd get his rake out. Ha! But the days and nights are hot.

My grass, after leftover tropical storm rains, looks better than it has all summer, as do the roses, plants, herbs, and vegetables.

I want to put an Obama sign in my yard, but everytime I've ever put a sign in my yard, the candidate has lost the election.

In spite of how dead my grass gets by the end of July, last year, I still had to cut it into November.

I'm feeling letdown from all the time spent not watching the Olympics.

I'm anticipating my soon-to-come letdown from not watching the Democratic Convention.

The tension between trying to savor the last season of The Wire while desperately wanting to know what happens makes it hard to start each successive episode.

The straight-ahead Christian-revivalish rock of "Diamonds In The Mine" comes from the Broken Family Band cd, Balls. Oddly, Norman Blake's little diamond, "Northern Winds" is hidden in the middle of Steve Earle's post-heroin comeback cd, Train A Comin'. Both are at Itunes.