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The earth's slow, axial grinding has brought us to this glorious day, the first of summer, the longest period of daylight of the year. If today's light is longest, then tomorrow's shorter light signals the slow slide back to winter -- in our beginnings are our ends, after all. Or, what goes around, comes around, depending on how you want to spin it. I will, however, refrain from lamenting summer's passing until the official start of my winter whining period, August 32.

In other news, the spouse and firstborn prepare tonight to depart in the wee hours of Thursday the twenty second for Kansas City, where they will catch a plane bound for Boston. Once in Boston, they will set out on a five-day whirlwind tour of colleges in New England that have accepted him, including the University of Maine, where for reasons unbeknownst to any adult in this household, our spawn has fixed his sights.

I would like to think he has chosen that school for academic reasons, but I suspect that other reasons have influenced his decision. I think that he has chosen Maine because (A) the state is about as far from home as he can get and still be in the lower forty-eight, and (B) the wilds of Maine provide great opportunites for hiking, canoeing, and other outdoor recreation, which he loves. The university's financial aid offer doesn't hurt either. They've offered him enough scholarship money to offset the out-of-state tuition differential and then some, making it nearly as reasonable (or un-) financially to attend Maine as it would be to roll out of bed and saunter down the street to KSU. With the help of our contribution, he will probably escape his undergraduate years with no student loans to burden him and money to spare for lift tickets and skis.

While the mom and Josh are away, O. and T. and I will remain behind in what will soon become known as the boyhood home of Josh McA. The Owen will, no doubt, plan his August move into Josh's much larger bedroom. Taylor might plunder Josh's protected stash of Hardy Boy mysteries, unread for lo these many years. I will wonder if the interjection 'lo' is commonly used in any other phrases, but I digress. We will enjoy meals from the three food groups: pepperoni pizza, sausage pizza, and super combo pizza. We will leave shoes in the middle of the living room with the full expectation that the shoes might be found there the next morning. We will stay up past our bedtimes and, when we sleep outside on the trampoline, we will imagine that our tired eyes have shown us shooting stars.

Who knew that someone else's holiday might be so liberating?

Watched (Tuesday night):
Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Wow! Not just because I'm so late to see it. Just wow!