Perhaps this closing attire for the summer of 2024 isn’t quite as demure as recent catchphrases would beg for it to be, but it’s a fitting final wardrobe for another summer of the speedo, which was celebrated in banging fashion at this year’s Olympic Games. All of that is to come with tomorrow’s summer recap, so this is just a holding place until then, where one can wade in the still-warm water of a pool that didn’t get used as much as it deserved. Some summers start out gloriously, then ripen into something darker and heavier than what might have originally been planned. Such was the case this year, but I’m getting ahead of myself, and the purpose of this post is to pause, take in the pool, and squeeze into this silly pink plaid speedo one more time – it is, after all, our coquette summer. (Stick with me, it comes off in the end…)
I’ll save the nostalgic look-back for tomorrow’s big post – for now, let’s have a moment in the water, as the sweetly-perfumed blossoms from the seven sons’ flower tree fall charmingly into the pool – an echo of the pale pink petals of the flowering cherry that greeted the season back when it all began. It feels long ago, the way summer can be a lifetime if you know how to manage it and make it matter. I’m not sure I did that, but I’m worn down and worn out by everything this last month or so has brought, and in the words of a vapid weirdo wife, I really don’t care, do u?
What summer wrought, fall will reckon, and while there may not be any Speedo-clad clickbait – this skimpy attire not being quite conducive for autumn weather in the Capital Region – there will be secrets spilled, and things are going to get so messy you’ll want to revisit just to see how well, or unwell, I try to hang onto my sanity. I’ve given myself leeway to go a little crazy this fall, because when you’re on the cusp of 50, you’ve earned it. You also find yourself entirely out of fucks to give, and there is such glee in that it will make up for whatever other horrors may, and likely will, transpire here.
Well, I failed in having that promised pool moment, and have instead delve into an unplanned fall preview of what’s to come. Maybe it’s for the best – the sooner we begin, the sooner it will be over. Come back for one more day of summer, and then get ready to go dark…
