Thursday, August 26, 2010

Fading Away
The moon looks full in the southwestern sky this morning. The air is cool and has that crispness of approaching autumn. By six am I am in slacks, shirt and tie and preparing for the first day of class at one of the colleges where I will be teaching this term. Although I still am scheduled for a lesson or two at Rutabaga in Madison, I can tell that summer is fading away.

This is always a bitter sweet time for me as my world moves along a cycle I know all too well. More than my birthdays, this change of season reminds my soul that another year has passed, albeit a good year; and I am thankful.

I pretty much got done what I'd hope to get done these past few months. I camped, got to symposiums, saw the grandchildren (more than once) and didn't get arrested. I met a lot of new people, most of them paddlers. I watched a lot of students "get it" and improve and took humble pride in knowing I had a little something to do with it.

As always, and if my health holds out, I will paddle right on through winter and into the next cycle of warm seasons. But for now, I have to go to school.

Paddle safe...
DS

6 comments:

JohnB said...

hope you packed some goodies in your lunch box!

Silbs said...

A bar to eat if the pain in the palate isn't too bad.

Unknown said...

how did you avoid getting arrested?

Silbs said...

I'm not going to say here, Steve.

SherriKayaks said...

Don't forget your sharpened eberhard-faber number 2 pencils and college-ruled notebooks.

Silbs said...

Oh, yes...and Scantron cards.