As Labor Day and the unofficial end of summer lingers a few days away, I’m starting to reflect about the last few months of summer. I enjoy summer again, like I did when I was in elementary school. Since we became parents, summer is fun. This summer was full of adventures. We took so many trips that I think we were in hotels or Airbnb houses more often than we were home. There were mini-vacations, a high school reunion, a Metallica concert, our annual golf tournament with college fraternity brothers, a Disney cruise, etc., etc., etc. As enjoyable as those trips were, there were a few simple moments that really stick out.
I was in Seattle for a client meeting in early June, and ate dinner at the Elysian Brewery by myself. Dinner was ok, but the atmosphere and friendliness of the bar area was over-the-top. Since the brewery is positioned in Pike Place Market, it was full of tourists like me. Mixing the local service people with us vagabonds served up great conversation and jokes among strangers that will likely never see each other again.
Later that month, we were in Narrowsburg, NY visiting my wife’s family. Narrowsburg sits on the Delaware River along the northeast border of PA. I decided to go for a walk early on a Saturday morning when I ran across a fawn that had been born within the hour. When I approached the little creature to see if it was hurt, a neighbor came out of his house and explained that the mother had just given birth. Apparently, fawns are left alone immediately after birth while the mothers forage for food. I kept walking, and when I returned, the baby was gone. It was pretty cool.
On Saturday morning of the long 4th of July weekend, I woke up at my in-laws’ house in Bluffton, SC. After breakfast, everyone went their separate ways and left me home, by myself. I had nothing to do until our tee time at 2:10 pm – absolutely nothing to do. I resisted a few temptations to open my laptop and act productive. I have to admit; the resistance was tough. Eventually the hard work paid off, and I sunk into the most relaxing state of hanging out and doing nothing. Think about that for a second … when is the last time you did absolutely nothing and were allowed to?
While on a mini vacation in Cape Cod, I noticed some batting cages at one of those kids’ parks that have a ton of games from the 1980s. I knew my daughter would want to ride the bumper boats at that park, and that we’d likely visit it later in the week. I was nervous because my wife would expect me to take some swings in the cages. I hadn’t swung at hard pitches since 1989. I wasn’t as worried about looking stupid as I was about injuring myself. Ok, I admit – I was worried about looking stupid. So, the moment came and there I was in the cage entitled “high school pitching”. Liars. It was far from high school - I think Pedro Martinez was behind that pitching machine. After 10 pitches, I maybe hit one foul ball. After 20, I was making contact. After 30, I was driving the ball every now and then, and feeling 100% better about my perfomance. Don’t get me wrong – it was somewhat of a pathetic showing, but I felt the same rhythm I did 30 years ago and knocked the heck out of a couple balls.
After our trip to Cape Cod, we let our four-year-old daughter spend a couple weeks with her grandparents (my in-laws). She does this every year, and every year I get sick missing her. This year, one week into the trip, I received a bittersweet call while I was at the gym. My daughter missed us and wanted to come home. As bad as I felt for my in-laws (and I did feel awful for them), I immediately left the gym to get her. Six hours later, she was home with us again. The moment that will always stick with me was her asking: “Can I come home?” Simply typing these words are bringing tears to my eyes.
One last memory, this one from Monday night of this week. I was sitting in the living room, on my laptop preparing for my trip the next day. My daughter slowly approached me and asked: “Will you color with me?” I recognized this as a moment that I would’ve lost 20 years ago. Not now. I closed my laptop, and we sat at her little table and colored for about 40 minutes until Mommy came home.
So, that’s it. That was my summer. Sound boring, huh? We took some really cool trips and I have much more entertaining stories, but these were the moments that touched me. I write these personal posts to let my subscribers get to know me a little bit, but every now and then, I write them for myself. This is one of those. I hope you have an awesome summer, and are looking forward to fall!
