Is this summer over already? Where did it go?
Sitting on the balcony this morning, I was surprised – but then again not surprised – to see that the leaves on the big tree in the next garden are already beginning to turn. Somehow I feel as though I am still in some kind of a daze trying to keep things straight in my mind. No doubt my dear sons will tell me I am just getting old.
First there was the end of school, the chaos, commotion and confusion when Christopher failed Spanish, and whether or not he would still be able to go to Albuquerque became a huge and difficult question. Although reserving a flight for him became an exercise in absurdity, I was relieved when his ticket came through and we were able to see him off at the airport. I'm very glad he was able to visit Grandma after all, even though it was only for a week, although I missed him very much while he was gone.
In the midst of all that, Paddy spiraled straight into loquacious Asberger mode, which can be hugely entertaining, but also slightly strenuous on a long-term basis. Oddly perhaps, for someone so afraid of traveling when he was little, Paddy's method for re-engaging with his environment is to set off for somewhere else. The first somewhere else was Burgenland, where there was to be a Paul Simon concert that he got tickets for. When the concert was canceled due to violent storms, Peter reached Paddy before he got to Vienna to change trains, so Paddy stayed in Vienna that day. The next day he took a speed boat to Bratislava to catch a flight to London to see the new Batman film. He then managed to return from London via Bratislava and Vienna again just in time to go with the rest of us to the premiere of "As You Like It". The night before the final performance of "As You Like It", Peter got a message from Paddy that he had just decided to take the night train to Bregenz to visit a friend there, and he hoped we wouldn't mind. Eleven o'clock at night, Paddy suddenly decides to go to Bregenz. That sounds like a perfectly normal and reasonable thing to do, doesn't it? The next day I heard from him that he had forgotten to take socks and underwear with him, and he had managed to buy socks, but he was having some difficulty locating a shop where he could buy underwear. Bregenz is not a big city, but it is the capital city of Vorarlberg, the western-most Federal Province of Austria. It is indeed possible to buy underwear there.
In the meantime, Peter has been practicing his usual summer activity of attempting to bilocate – at least. As he has become quite adept at operating the lights for summer theater productions, developing a keen interest in theater along the way, he was so happy to be asked again that he agreed to do the lights for overlapping productions in very different locations.
With my three men moving rather confusingly in all directions, I think I overlooked making a sensible schedule for myself as well. For several weeks I found myself in the car with Peter every afternoon about five, heading for a small village near the Czech border, not returning home until about two in the morning. This makes for very short days, during which I did not manage to finish all the work I had planned to do during that time. I have been told by various people that this should not really surprise me, but I still feel somewhat perplexed.
Is summer really over already? So when do I finally get to rest then?
