Back To School

-
This time of year I used to feel that yearning for the smell of fresh school supplies, new school clothes and the first day of classes. I'm not sure when that changed, but this year I am so glad that I don't have to go back to school. I've been out of college for twenty-four years and I graduated high school over forty-five years ago. I still have dreams of hunting for the right classroom until it's too late to show up for class. And the dream where I suddenly discover I'm enrolled in a class I've never been to and it's the day of final exams.

So here it is almost the end of August, school has been in session for over a week, and I don't have to go.

I study constantly, reading about gardening and farming and folkways, but not because I have to. Because I like to. I'm what they call a lifelong learner. I loved my time at the university, reading, studying, researching, but the stress was overwhelming at times. Summer break was always a nice little breather, but I knew not to get too comfortable, too relaxed, or going back in the fall would be too hard. Thankfully, even in college I had the yearning for the smell of fresh school supplies and all that.

Soon the leaves will begin to turn, the first crisp notes of autumn will frost the air, and college football will begin to take up an annoying amount of my time. As the weather cools I'll feel more like cutting firewood, raking leaves and baking bread.

Then the bite of the cold winter wind will start to get old, I'll tire of always bundling up to go outside and I'll begin longing for spring and gardening and before I know it, it will be time for school to start again.

Life is a vicious cycle.

Stephen P.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Country Code and Shooting Dogs

-
Image
photo by Kathryn Scott My dad never killed a dog while I was growing up. A few times he had to jump into his pickup and go run dogs off that were chasing the cattle. It's the country code. If your dog chases livestock, he is guilty of a capital crime. Horses attempting to flee barking, snarling dogs often break legs. Cattle being chased run and burn off weight, often being off their feed for awhile. Sheep crash into fences and hurt themselves and the list goes on. A livestock chasing dog costs the farmer money, sometimes a lot, and they escalate and begin killing sheep and goats. Dogs that chase chickens usually catch them and kill them. The attack also stresses out the rest of the flock causing hens to stop laying and molt. These dogs usually get three strikes. The punishment the first two times, is harsh enough. The dog is sentenced to having the decomposing chicken tied around his neck until it rots and falls off. Kind of an echo of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If you
Read more

Changes

-
Image
Lake Thunderbird Some changes are good, like from winter to spring. Others are not so good. Every time we have to go into Norman, the city is bigger noisier and the traffic is heavier. It seems like hundreds of acres of farm land become cookie cutter housing and huge apartment complexes every week. That's not just my imagination, others see it too. And every trip into town, I notice more businesses shutting down. Not that that's always a bad thing. Long John Silvers, Arby's and Wendy's locations have been boarded up. The Mexican Food Store is gone, and that probably isn't a good thing, since the International food store has been gone for awhile. The highway out here has become four-lane for about half the way and that has led to more traffic. It's also the time of year when campers, boaters and fisherman flock to Thunderbird, which means we no longer have the lake to ourselves. We also no longer have the big box garden centers to ourselves. I al
Read more

Busy-ness

-
It's been a while since my last post, but it couldn't be helped. I've been busy getting two of my novels ready to publish on Amazon.com, as Kendle ebooks, and doing a final rewrite on a third novel. The first two, My Year in the Barrel and Jordan's Fall are now live and available for download. The third, Eaters , will be available in the next month or two. I'm also working on a new website, but more about that later. I hope to get back to writing my smile-worthy humorous blog posts (or at least not groan-worthy) in the near future. Until then, I hope you'll read free samples of my books at Amazon.com. www.amazon.com/author/scottstephen Stephen P.
Read more