Fresh month, renewed activities, new season!

It's September. That means Labor Day is near, back to school is here, weather will start the slow slide towards our rainy winters, and the days are definitely getting shorter.

A new month. I like beginnings.

Some updates from August:

• Muggle is healing. She resides mostly in the undercarriage of the RV and comes out at night to devour a can of tuna cat food while I gently pet her. She'd had an infection on one ear that caused a hard, scaly crust on the edge; that has come off and it looks like that part of the ear came with it. I captured her long enough last night to clean it a little and dab some Neosporin on it. But the hitch in her getalong seems much better.
  
• Our fair entries are in and between us we'll have 30 photos displayed, many that already are on our photo Web site.
  
• I've met deadlines: an ad for a program and a column for the newspaper. Yay me.
• It's not so hot. Temps peak usually in the upper 90s, but with the low humidity, that's bearable. Swamp cooler has been our cooling source since the hot spell of July broke, meaning electric bills that don't make us gasp in horror.

Stuff is starting up again this month:

• The Redding Broadway series kicks off with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on Sept. 15 -- a holdover from last season's schedule, but one we are gleefully anticipating. Watching the two of them on Carol Burnett used to be one of the best belly-laugh opportunities ever. I expect this program to be much the same.
• Bowling starts in a week. Yes, we're in a league this year, starting out with folks we bowled with -- as permanent subs -- last year. I'm getting my first ever bowling ball and shoes; Tony has a new ball, too (he got shoes last year). His old rubber ball was pronounced a relic by our resident pro shop specialist. We'll see if our scores improve. It's fun, though, and gets us out in the community.
• Yoga starts the same night as bowling. I'm signing up for the first 6-week series and will just hightail it from yoga mat to bowling alley every Monday night. I love the focus of yoga and concentrating on muscles that don't otherwise get stretched.
  

I like the anticipation of fall, too, even though the falls here are pretty much hot and dry until it rains, and then it's cold and wet. One long range forecast, though, is calling for a good rain sometime in mid-September, which certainly ought to help the fire danger. Perhaps that would hasten cooler weather -- I'm ready for windows open and a nip in the morning air.

And I've got a trip planned next month, too, back to Indiana. It'll be the first visit since the early '90s, and fun to see what's changed. I'm hoping for a good taste of crisp fall weather, bright blue October skies, and apples like you don't get in California. I already know I'll have wonderful talks, lots of chocolate, laughing until I hurt, and some puddly moments.

Until the mid-'90s or so, fall always meant new pencils, notebooks, new clothes and shoes, and a new-year-in-school attitude. Part of that was that I was in school, I was working in or around schools, or my daughter was in school. But September still feels like a new start to me -- even though schools start around here in August.

Advice (with or without consent)

I've been a regular Ann Landers this week, although maybe it's been more like the proverbial Jewish momma, since the advice wasn't quite solicited!

Two of my wonderful daughters, however, are in situations with the men in their lives that could have very far-reaching consequences to their own options and choices in life. And I, always being the mother hen to my baby chicks, wanted to make sure they are looking out for themselves first.

It's not that I don't like the respective men, either -- I do, and I think they are far superior choices to anyone either of them have brought home in the past, and I believe they truly love my daughters. That's what we hope for our children, that they are partnered with people they love who love them in return.

However.

Both men have some issues -- health and/or familial responsibility -- that have had serious impacts upon their personal goals and capabilities. These directly affect my girls and their personal goals and capabilities simply because they love these men.

The girls, by their own admission, have made past choices that were not in their best interests and that have caused them some serious emotional and financial heartburn.

Yes, I realize both are plenty old enough to make their own choices and decisions without Momma's interference. But when I see them struggling with the realities and they talk to me about their frustrations, I figure I have a responsibility to point out what I see -- which is not always what they want me to see (or that I want to see), but which also sometimes are points they've not thought about.

The trick is for me to say it, love on them, and then shut up. I'll have pointed out the cliffs and the bottomless pits, but it is up to them to choose which path they want to take.

Oh, that is hard -- to shut up.

My folks did it many times, I realize, and it wasn't because they didn't have insight or opinions! Somehow, though, in their love and wisdom, they managed to support me and my choices, even when they worried about them. They were always my most loyal, most loving supporters.

And that's the challenge: to love and always support my girls, to accept their choices, and to never, ever say "I told you so."

Daddy once said to me after I'd spent a week or so with them helping out, that "...You have no idea how much..." he loved me.

I do.

My girls have no idea how much we love them.

I hope they will, some day (when they are themselves parents of grown children).