I did the deed the other day: I washed, folded and stored away most of my summer apparel. Then I brought out the good stuff.
The team ball caps. The team scarves. The team socks. The team necklaces, earrings, runners, raincoats and wigs. Yes, wigs.
What can I say? See ya later, summer! Welcome, football fall!
I never used to be like this. At one point in my life, before I understood what a drop kick is and what a cornerback does, I bemoaned the annual stowing away of the sandals, shirts, shorts and bathing suits.
I would look sadly into the back yard, where the dew would have become heavier, the leaves crisper and the spider webs more abundant. I would notice that the sun would be setting soon after 7:30, not long after I’d washed and put away the dinner dishes. It would occur to me that I’d need a coat on my morning walk to the bus stop — and more often than not, an umbrella.
But that was then, and this is now.
“Where are the team toques?” I asked the husband days ago. “Man, I cannot WAIT until it’s cold enough to wear the team toques!”
The husband was unpacking the team boxes that live in the bottom of the closet.
“And where are our team earmuffs? Holy, moly, why does it still feel so warm?”
The husband pulled out the earmuffs and smiled.
“Oh, look!” he said. “Our team flags! I cannot wait to wave these! And our team raincoats! Man, what I’d give for a decent downpour!”
We gingerly laid out the team paraphernalia in sweet, little piles on the laundry room counter and refilled the boxes with the clothes we’d been wearing for weeks.
My nice little smock from Oahu? Can’t say I’m going to miss it. The flip-flops that showcase my pink painted toes? Don’t need ‘em — not when I can tug on my colourful team galoshes.
“I hear you about the rain,” I said. “Sheesh, this summer’s gone on forever!”
Non-football folk don’t get it, of course. They look at the calendar the way I once did: a tad blue that it’s pointing to the first day of autumn, and an end to patio dining.
That mindset, I say, is so horribly lame. Summer’s nice for a while, I guess. But really, it’s so overrated.
