It’s the most depressing time of year.
Once the Shawville Fair is over, so is summer.
It’s the time of year when the nights get colder, the sun sets earlier and the TV is inundated with tired commercials showing exuberant parents sending their kids back to school.
I haven’t been in school for years and I still hate the sight of those commercials.
One of the annual routines I perform every summer is the mental checklist of things I didn’t do.
Did I spend enough time lounging around by the water? Did I get out and enjoy the warm weather enough? Did I do enough “summer” things?
Inevitably, as I get older, I check off fewer and fewer of these boxes.
Do any of us really get to “relax” as much as we’d like?

If it were up to me, I’d spend every moment I could with a cold drink in hand baking under the sun near a body of water.
Did I do that? No.
Did you do that? Probably not.
Which is why this time of year stinks.
I’m not sure about you, but I tend to measure the summer I actually had against the summer I wish I’d had.
I know, it’s a fool’s game comparing reality to some abstract fantasy. But that’s what summer is: the promise of what’s possible.
Look at the excitement of a kid on the last day of school. Their eyes a brimming with possibilities.
Look into the eyes of a child on the first day of school and you’ll see the exact opposite: Their eyes glazed over at the prospect of having to endure the longest possible time until summer holidays.
This time of year also marks an unofficial “New Year.”
Students will be starting a new school year; Parents, after a summer of (hopefully) recharging their batteries, gear up for another uninterrupted stretch of work and the trees will start dying shortly after another season of life.
Don’t worry though! You’ll get more holidays soon enough. It’s just that it’ll be Christmas.
You know? The time of year when we get the least amount of sunlight, the temperature plunges, we spend hundreds of dollars on a commercialized holiday so our kids won’t get mad at us and we have to endure extended family we avoid for the rest of the year.
Sigh.
At least it’s not all bad.
Last September graced us with some summer-like weather, so there’s a chance we get to enjoy the warm temperatures for at least another month or so.
The Shawville Fair is always a must-attend event that’s fun for all ages. So that’s good.
And whether they admit it or not, many parents are as giddy as those grotesque back-to-school commercials make them out to be at the prospect of having the rule of the roost for another 10 months.
Now I’m sure there are people out there who will say ‘Winter is amazing, we’re Canadians, toughen up!’
Those people are liars.
OK, maybe calling them liars is a bit harsh. But come on!
How can anyone who’s experienced weeks of warm temperatures say to themselves ‘I can’t wait to wrap myself up like a mummy before I leave the house so I can scrape a half-inch of ice off my windshield.’
Don’t get me wrong. I like winter. I grew up playing outdoor hockey just about every night of the week.
I may like winter, but I love summer.
And this time of year signifies the end of the latter and the start of the former.
Sigh.

Chris Lowrey