Football Epilogue

My kids started school this last week. A very good thing as I think they were getting bored with the summer routine. Summer is anything but a vacation due to having to manage childcare schedules and it seems the pace of things at work hastens and is more chaotic. The end of summer is then, in a lot of ways, a relief. Schedules become more regimented. Activities are constrained to evenings and non-school days. We know what's going to happen throughout the weeks and months with more certainty. Despite this, there is one thing I dread about back to school. All the kids have been off doing their own things and collecting their own sets of bacteria and viruses. Germs that are different enough that back to school results in a concentration and redistribution of what can only be affectionately called crud. This is a roundabout way of saying that I have a cold. It's annoying enough to deplete me yet not severe enough to place me in bed. Only a week is a little early for me to ful...

I don't know who ever dubbed it "summer vacation". Summer is most certainly not a multi-month holiday or anything that us Americans assume much of Europe is like. In reality the "vacation" is an archaic remain of an agrarian society where kids were needed at home to help tend crops. Farming is now technologically advanced to the point that many farm kids have three months to kill. Better synonyms to describe triple-entente of June, July and August are chaotic, busy, stressful, fast paced, hot, tired, crabby, bug-laiden and "when does school start again?". That said, it's not all awful. I do enjoy the extra time with the kids. They are at good ages where they are agreeable to most things. When they're not I still have enough clout to move them along as I feel necessary. There are a lot of fun activities we've partaken in as well: fishing, bonfires, camping, basketball, pickleball, swimming, bike rides, yard projects (as I call them ...