The End of Summer...:(

I just checked the weather report to see when it's going to warm up again.  I hadn't imagined that this would be it, but it's not looking good for us to see anything beyond the 50's.  Last year, it reached 60 degrees on Thanksgiving, maybe a little warmer.  It was fantastic, unseasonable and scary--something big had to be brewing, right?  I don't remember getting slammed, but I do know that was an isolated incident. Is it really downhill from here, or are we going to get another round of Indian Summer?  I wonder whether that's okay to say...I don't know what else to call it.  And then there is that apple juice brand, which I'm pretty sure is still in the stores, so I guess it's okay.  Whew!

This got me thinking about a famous cartoon, which used to appear every year in the Chicago Tribune.  I just realized that I haven't seen it lately, and there's a good reason.  It was discontinued due to it's insensitivity to Native Americans.  Still, "Injun Summer" was a tradition that lasted over 70 years, and I started reading it when I was a teen.  I kept it up for years, just for myself.  I never read it to my children.  It was my own little tradition.  Somewhere between life and more life, I forgot about it.  Until today.  Here's the link:
http://www.tkinter.smig.net/Chicago/InjunSummer/






I also still collect leaves.  They dry out and I throw them away, but it's just something that I do.  If I see a great tree, I'll get out of the car if possible and grab a few.  Remember the wax paper, leaf and crayon shaving craft in school?  I thought my teacher was a greatest when she let me melt those crayons.That stands out as one of my all-time favorites and when I was teaching, I did it every year with my class.

I spent three hours in Chicago traffic today, on a trip that should have taken 45 minutes, tops.  The traffic is as unpredictable as the weather is.  This morning, I gave myself over two hours to get there, and arrived an hour and 15 minutes early.  Traffic was a breeze, but whatever time I saved on the inbound trip, I lost it again on the way home.  I was calculating how far I could have gone if I'd actually been driving south all that time (rather than sitting in traffic) and figured that I would have been close to St. Louis.  Something to think about if you don't like driving long distances. You CAN do it! Personally, I love it, and I'm looking forward to a long fall drive sometime next week.

 Have Groupon, will take road trip:

  


Fantastic thrift haul today...Photo shoot tomorrow!