Vicki Estes: Sayonara, summer

Break out the brats, hot dogs and hamburgers and dare to cook on a charcoal grill in your white attire --- today marks the unofficial end of summer.

No more lazy river rides at the Shawnee County North pool. No more ice cream trucks circling neighborhoods, enticing us with Eskimo Pies. No more white shoes, shorts, pants or skirts for the fashion-conscious. My daughter, on the other hand, can't stand artificially imposed fashion rules and plans to wear white socks with white shoes, white shorts and a white shirt after Labor Day. "I'm gonna rock the white," she rebelliously claims. Where does she get that attitude?"I think the grass is going to catch on fire," he announced. He didn't have to elaborate. The worried look on his face had "spontaneous combustion" written all over it.Usually by August, kids are bored and parents anticipate -- sometimes beg for -- the beginning of the new school year. Not this year. Every mom I encountered couldn't believe it was time to relinquish the kids back to the classroom. Time together this summer was simply too short. Perhaps it's a sign of the simple times returning. Or maybe we are so overscheduled we don't notice how quickly the days are slipping past us.The scorching heat is the only aspect of summer I will miss. The car repairs are a close second, especially the window that won't close. When I admit I prefer winter to summer people shake their heads, laugh at me and utter something like, "Hardly anyone likes winter, especially me. I love summer!"We stopped watering the grass in July so we could keep the leaking backyard pool filled with enough water to make us salivate for relief. Any rain forecast that month brought us intermittent raindrops that dusted the newly washed car, falling far short of saving the turf, flowers and other plant life. By Aug. 10, my husband surveyed the damage from the upstairs bedroom window- -- with binoculars -- and declared a code brown.I attempted to save a cactus from the chill of our air- conditioned house and moved it to the front porch so it could thrive in the heat. Who knew it would be too hot for a cactus? Its condition is terminal and it may not make it through today's celebratory cookout. We will toast to its full, yet prickly life with ice-cold drinks and grilled Polish sausage, and be thankful that fall, football and cooler weather will arrive about the time I fix my car window.A few short picnics ago, we were celebrating the end of school and settling into our summer routines. Wasn't July 4th just last week?Vicki Estes is a Topeka freelance writer. She can be reached at vaestes@sbcglobal.net.

Vicki Estes is a Topeka freelance writer. She can be reached at vaestes@sbcglobal.net.