First Days of September

A little dramatic editing, but so is the mood

September. A magical month. The closure of the summer, yet another summer (when you are my age, you start deploring the passing of time), the first hints of fall.

For those not familiar with Lebanon, you should visit this place in fall. Preferably late fall. Best time of the year. The light, the temperature, it’s all good.

Although the temperature is still not very cooperative at the moment. It’s still awfully hot, and this week promises to be even hotter. But hey, rather hot than in a hurricane.

The end of summer heralds departure.

My son and his girlfriend left at the end of August, back to their universities abroad. They were not the only ones leaving. You may have read people needed some four hours at Beirut Airport to get to their gates; the lines were massive (and chaotic, as usual). I have decided that from now on I will travel by train or by boat. Being in Lebanon, I guess I am not going anywhere.

I am now at the point where my parents once were; saying bye to their kids at airport parking lots. 

The last teenager in my house started high school this week. High school already? I remember I was taking the ‘first day of school’ picture when she was 3! Still remember what she wore. Odd that I can remember that so vividly, yet am clueless as to where I put my phone, my glasses and my car keys.

Another 4 years and she will leave Lebanon for college. Then I will have joined the legion of ‘childless’ parents who have to travel abroad to visit their children. 

Her school week was cut short due to an unscheduled day of mourning after the remains of 9 soldiers, executed by Daesh (ISIS) back in 2014, were identified last week. A reminder that things are from from normal in this place, and probably never will be.

The nine were executed after just about everyone involved in their release made one mistake after the other, and the whole thing was basically bungled. So while on the one hand school children had a field day, nine mothers had the worst day of their lives. Or probably just another very bad day, among many others.

This one made me laugh; A piece of wood while paving the road? Just go right over it. It must have been there for quite some time.

Fits right in

It used to be that I was surrounded by kids every weekend. They were young kids, the children of friends and family, and they were young enough that they’d follow us in whatever we planned. Mountain hikes, picnics on the beach, ski weekends, bike rides along the boulevard, you name it, we came with kids in tow.  Trailing kids, so to speak. Pretty soon, I can call myself a trailing parent.

Now that they’ve gotten older, they don’t buy into my weekend plans anymore: they have more interesting things to do. To get my daughter up to the mountains for the weekend, I have to do some serious bribing and entertainment planning. Plans with friends involve fewer and fewer children. I kind have forgotten how it was before our kids, but I guess I will have to get the hang of it again. 

Wow. September gets you in a reflective mood.

By the time it gets October, I’ll be back in a more creative mood :)