The Waning Days of August

I stepped outside for a smoke last night, it was only 7:30 pm and yet the sky was already getting dark.  And it had nothing to do with the day’s momentous total eclipse of the sun.  Sadly, it was the inevitable approach to the close of summer.  It’s hard not to be wistful about that.

While I can still hear the soaring call of the cicadas while I sit out in our yard, I know that soon, these too will be silenced.  On August 28, Mary drags herself back to her daily grind at the two schools she works for, and I have to finally say goodbye to our two great summer interns, Shane Fay and Olivia Gilmore.

These two have performed yeoman service, showing up each week on time, ready to work and producing many well-written travel articles.  I am happy that both of them got to do some traveling during this internship, Olivia is going to New York state on to see haunted houses and Shane just returned from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

I am at a crossroads at this juncture, however.  I have no interns coming in for September yet.  Usually, we have at least two and I am putting out the call as best I can to recruit some new students. I am hoping a post on the Journalism School’s Amherst Wire will do the trick.

Yes, every year I lament the passing of summer and its fleeting nature.  But the fall has a lot of great things to offer, including my trio of fall trips that will inspire and educate me. Who knows where I’ll go in 2018.