Just two years ago at this time, I was getting ready for a road trip to Ontario and the eastern US. Last year, I was reflecting on a pandemic summer and already thinking about a mental health plan for the winter. COVID-19 numbers in Nova Scotia have been low for most of the summer but it looks like we are officially in the fourth wave now and hospitals started cancelling elective surgeries again last week. On our side is a high vaccination rate—as of Wednesday, 73.9% of the entire population is double-vaxxed.
In the late 1990’s, I bought a large whiteboard to use at home. Driving back from the office supply store, the BFATT assured me you’ll never use it. Wrong. It travelled to the PNW with me (the first time), back to Canada, and then out west again where it eventually got replaced from overuse. Inspired by my notes, the cat-sitter called it the whiteboard of awesome. But in the great downsizing of 2017, all whiteboards got left behind. In June, after going without for four years, I finally bought a new one and brainstormed summer—figuring out where all the people I wanted to see, places I wanted to go, and things I wanted to do fit in to 13.5 weeks.
And the remaining item on that summer schedule got checked off last week when a friend and I went to Kejimkujik National Park Seaside Adjunct. This is a protected area on Nova Scotia’s south shore separate from the main park where I camped in July. We scrambled over rocks, strolled the white sand beach (off limits in July and August during Piping Plover nesting season), and watched seals bobbing in the turquoise water. Afterwards, we drove up the coast to check out two popular resorts at Summerville Beach and White Point Beach. It was a beautiful goodbye to summer.
Autumn was my favoUrite season when I was younger because my birthday is in October. In September 2002, I started working for a small tech company in the Ottawa area and, by October, I had already witnessed at least one person getting recognized with dozens of donuts on their birthday. When everyone got called in to the kitchen on my birthday, I thought Wow! How did they know? Well, they didn’t know. The coffee machine was broken so they’d brought in coffee and donuts. I enjoyed my non-birthday donut with my face burning, contemplating a Buddhist lesson in humility. On my birthday the following year, we got called into the kitchen and again it was not for my birthday (I’m not making this up). The third year, I casually mentioned my upcoming birthday to the office admin and was rewarded with attention, a song, and my effin’ donuts.
At some point with the Big Corporation out west, I decided the best way to celebrate my birthday was not with a free sour-cream glazed but by taking the day off work and going to a spa. I thought of the job this month when I ordered expensive new progressives (bifocals)—my last pair were purchased in 2016 with the help of my fabulous health insurance benefit. Well, there’s no more of that.
With the corporate job (and the small tech company), I never enjoyed Sunday evening because I was always thinking about Monday morning. As expected, SLSR has allowed me to take back Sunday night. But maybe summer has become my favoUrite season because autumn in Nova Scotia has an edge like Sunday evening. I know what comes next.
References and related links:
- BFATT: boyfriend at the time.
- PNW: Pacific Northwest.
- SLSR: simpler living semi-retirement.
- Kejimkujik National Park Seaside (Parks Canada site)
- pan-autumn (post #149)
- autumn equinox 2019 (post #124)
- taking back Sunday night (post #23)
Dad says
I have preferred autumn for a long time. I don’t handle the heat of summer well. I never minded going back to school/work; in fact, I looked forward to it. New course; new classes. Seeing students again and meeting new ones. But our winter can be a bother if they go on too long or if there’s too much snow.