#summers end

Gravity falls spoilers

I still love that picture of us walkin'

Just like that old house we thought was haunted

Summer's end came faster than we wanted

When I was young I can remember when the weather was better, the days were longer and there were even hours where I couldn't think of anything I really wanted to do. So what happened to change this into nowadays?

In those earlier days, very few people had even heard of climate change, the summer days sometimes changed hourly between hot and sunny to cold and wet but you could almost guarantee cold snowy winter days leading to slushy walks when there was the occasional slightly warmer one. 

At the risk of being controversial, I must say that climate change has brought some benefits to me now. I don't need to greet the dawn, get out of a warm bed and fight slowly moving traffic to struggle into work.  Instead I can turn to pleasant tasks of tending to a flourishing garden. The warmer drier winters also means that I am not plagued with too many aches and pains in the old bones. 

On the negative side of the equation, although I relish in the increased heat of the summer days, it seems I have less and less time to sit and admire the garden. As soon as my bottom meets the deckchair canvas I spot some plant, shrub or tree demanding my attention and begging for water. 

Of course the lack of rainfall means the water butt is empty and I need to invade the kitchen and fight my way through the washing up to reach the tap. The clatter as the stacked up cups topple when I try to get the watering can under the tap elicits a shout of “Can you just wash up those few things ?” There’s that dreaded word “just”. The word that means a new task has forced its way immediately before my current plan of action and on top of all the others on my already extensive  to-do list. As I put the watering can to one side to engage in my newly allotted activity a further shout of “You haven’t got those muddy shoes on my newly cleaned floor have you?” emanates from the other room. I look down in horror to see a clear line of footprints across the freshly washed tiles. Oh dear, yet another urgent job. Looking out the window I murmur to myself a quiet apology to the wilting plants.

I think it is because of having a whole new and different set of jobs that need doing, in addition to all those house maintenance tasks that used to plague my weekends and evenings in the working week, means I always have things that continually demand my time.  It's true that I also don't have the inclination to get on with some of these tasks; but that is another story.

Just the thought of all the necessary jobs that lie before me seems to shrink the time available to do them and leads to the impression of shorter days and mean there is never an hour that cannot be filled with this or that task. Talking to others of a similarly advanced stage in life it is clear that I am not alone in my concept of accelerating time. Apparently it is a common perception and I can point you to this article that explains it in far better terms than I could ever aspire to.