Loose Laces

Today is the last of the "official" Dog Days for this year. Weather is forecast to be extremely hot and humid.

This may be one of "our" baby Robins. They are beginning their migration, and the locals will all be gone before the end of the month.

The ending of summer is a difficult time for me. Autumn is nice, but I prefer the hot Dog Days. Most of my recollections from my youth are summer memories. Playing outdoors, roaming the fields and exploring the woods around my home were the highlights of my early life.

Being an only child and a shy "loner" was to have a profound effect on my future. The greatest classroom I attended was the one Nature provided outside my back door. I learned more about life and its meaning than I did in 18 years of formal schooling, and I still learn each time I step outside to take my photos.

My biggest regret is that I never learned about people. The backwardness kept me from making friends, and that alone drove me deeper into self reliance and an unwarranted distrust of humanity. When someone did befriend me, out of ignorance I always managed to say or do something that turned them against me.

I was the skinny, bashful kid in school and in church. The bullies had a good time with me, and the girls would whisper their silly giggles when I tried to be friends. This went on even into high school. It is the reason that I refused to attend my own graduation, much to my mom's distress. It isn't the reason I turned against organized religion.

After high school, I was able to pluck up enough courage to ask a girl to marry me. I met her on a blind date, because I was too shy to ask anyone to go out with me. She said yes and we are still married. She still chides me for shaking her hand after our first date, instead of trying to kiss her. What if I had tried to kiss her and she had put me down? I probably would have been traumatized to the point that I would never again go out with a girl, even if she asked me.

Anyway, and after a few more years and after getting over a bit of the shyness, I visited some of the boys that made my school years miserable. Becoming a construction worker gave me a different mindset, and I found that I was fairly handy with my fists and had hand speed they came to respect...! It's odd, but I've outlived several of those kids.
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For anyone's information, the star Arcturus is a greenish delight and may be found by following the curve of the handle of the Big Dipper's handle. If you seek it tonight or tomorrow night, don't forget to look for an unusual number of shooting stars.