The Yearly Labor Day Blues
Added to the usual melancholy is a concern about chaos and disruption.
Labor Day is always tough on me. It brings on the unavoidable melancholy that summer is ending and my time on the water’s edge is over for another year. Labor Day brings back all the memories of leaving this little house and heading back over the bridge to reality. The last step, of securing four bikes to the back of the car was always a tear-jerker.
I have not put the bikes on the car for over twenty-five years. My daughter, who now owns a house down the road had her husband put the bikes on her car three days before Labor Day. She did that to avoid the Labor Day Blues. My son left two weeks ago to get his kids ready for fall sports. In many ways, their lives are a repeat of my life. In more ways, their lives are much different.
This Labor Day is different in many ways also. The most striking is that it hardly feels like fall. The temperature has remained in the 70s and 80s. The humidity has dropped and the tilt of the sun says fall, but the leaves on the trees and vines that are usually red and yellow by now are still green. The water in the bay is still warm and inviting. I do not have a job to go back to. There is very little reason to go home. It feels more as if “home” is here. Also, I have plans to come back in another week…
