Look out! Here comes the fall

It’s over 80 degrees in Southeast Iowa. I’ve been to all the ‘Ps of summer (picnics, potlucks and pools), and I don’t even know where any of my sweatshirts are.

But even with the sunlight and warm weather, I still feel something creeping in the shadows. The season that starts everything anew is somehow nearly here.

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Fall has always been a creepy little guy. You’re out enjoying the summer months. If you’re like me in my high school and college years, you’re cruising through life with no job, no money and no cares in the world and then wham! It’s back to school night.

I can still remember the dreadful last two weeks of summer, when I couldn’t enjoy myself anymore, because I knew I would be waking up early and lacing up my sneakers for five long days of pretending to pay attention to the lecture every single week. I thought it would never end.

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I’m an August birthday, which you’d think would lessen the sting, but there is nothing more depressing than the day after when there is nothing more to look forward to than that first day back in class.

Fall can be so sneaky that sometimes I didn’t realize it was my birthday at all. There was no reason to know what day it was in the summer, and then I’d just wake up and there would be a cake on the table. Like, ‘What’s this all about and who’s turning 15? Oh, me.’

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Now, as an adult, the fall sneaks up even quicker. We at the newspaper cover baseball and softball until our last teams have been eliminated, and once again it took until the state baseball tournament for everything to finally settle down. Once that’s all done, you look at the calendar and you’re already at the back end of the season.

The next two weeks go by quick, and before you know it, the first official sign of fall (preseason NFL football) is finally here. A welcome little treat before the harsh realities of darkness and cold weather come flying in at the end of September.

For prep sports fans, the fall schedule is just around the corner. The first football and volleyball games are now just two weeks away. That’s just two weeks left of wearing exclusively lighter clothing. Two weeks left of hanging out at the local pool. For those in school, two weeks left of sleeping in.

So go out and take this week by the horns, because pretty soon, we’ll all have somewhere to be again, every hour of the day.