Normal. It Kind of Looks Like September.

Posted on by glenchen

August is here and gone. Like a freight train that just ran through your living room.

Oh, I heard it coming. I could see the lights in the distance. I knew trouble was brewing when the pre-school meetings that normally happen in August were happening in July, when the book launch we had planned for May was put off til June, then July, then August. When the small bathroom project (as always) turned into a major renovation and with school starting soon we still didn’t have a working toilet for guests to use. And when my doctor warned me that the new migraine medication he was putting me on “might have some minor side effects,” like nausea, depression and fuzzy thinking. One of these things is a challenge. Put them all together, and we have a word for it. August.

In Texas, we have three words for it. August in Texas.

It hasn’t rained here since May, and my trees are telling me that they are dying. Actually, from experience I know that they’re only going dormant, but the dry weather isn’t doing them much good. We have piles of leaves on the ground as if we’re having an early fall, and it’s still 95 degrees outside.

But today is different. Why? Because I woke up and it’s September. Salome’s Charger is no longer vaporware; it’s an actual for-real book available at Amazon and some for-real customers have actually bought it already (I feel like a for-real author too!). School is into its second week now, students have settled in, some have actually gotten their textbooks and things have gotten easier there. The bathroom is proceeding nicely (tub is in! toilet is in! sink, light and mirrors are in! I am a genius!), except for a minor setback where I learned that the toilet in the other bathroom is leaking, so there’s a delay.  Got permission from the doc to back down on my meds to have a dose to see if I can be a normal person without going back to having double vision, and that seems to be working.

All in all, as I ask around, August seems to have been a tough month in a lot of people’s lives. But September is here, so that’s something to cheer about. Even if your life hasn’t turned that corner yet, hey, the month is still young. California, it’ll start raining soon. Texas, you too. The best thing about tomorrow is that it starts brand new. Let’s approach it with all the hope that it is meant to bring.