Transition to Summer Bachelorhood In Progress

Been a bit busy the past few days. The title of this post is the reason, but it bears some explaining. You see, for each of the past five years, my wife and two girls have gone away to camp for some or all of the summer. Beth is a nurse, and she works in the camp infirmary. Our older daughter, Shaina, has been a full-fledged camper, and our younger daughter, Leah, has attended the day camp program for staff children and staying in her mom's room. This year, Leah will be moving into a bunk for the first time, although that will happen during the second half of the summer. The transition week occurs because Beth goes down to camp a week early, to help clean and set up the infirmary and get all the camper's medical files in order. I stay home with the kids, who are still finishing their school. Due to the need to run most out-of-the-house errands while the kids are still in school, I can get no more than a half day of work accomplished each day this week. Blogging is a luxury.

Next week I begin my nine weeks of "Home Alone" (punctuated by visits to camp most weekends). I have problems with time during the summer. I get out of phase with the solar day. My meal schedule becomes erratic. My family is like a regulator for my internal clock, and it only takes a few days without the usual external time cues for everything to start getting out of whack. During the other three seasons, of course, peace and quiet is one of my most highly prized goals. During the summer, it's exactly the opposite: any human contact at all is welcome. Except telemarketers, that is.

I'm not sure what, if any, impact blogging will have on my psyche during the summer. I suppose it will help, a bit, to fill the need for human contact. In past years, I have definitely noticed that my Usenet and/or mailing list activity did increase in the summer. But as valuable and vital as electronic community can be, it is still a poor substitute for real human contact, and I've decided to make at least a semi-conscious effort not to blog every day.