Resting from One's Labors

I love fall. It is probably my favorite season. The bounty of the harvest, the rich changing colors of the leaves and the way the light splays across the landscape, all signal the waning of the season of beach and bar-b-q and the beginning of the gentle slide into winter. Labor Day week-end always changes my seasonal mindset and gets me thinking about tweedy jackets and the smell of wood smoke, even though today the mercury is still bumping up against 90 degrees. This past week-end Erin and I decided to forgo invitations to two end-of-summer events and just hang around the Island. On Saturday we threw the boys into the bike trailer and took a ride from Bethpage State Park to Jones Beach, a pleasant 13 mile pedal along a wooded corridor of green that gradually transitions to a wide path along the Wantagh Parkway with striking views of the bay and the Ocean. It was a humid day but the boys tolerated it well, even after we got to Jones Beach and they had to do a lot of walking around to find food. The day started with a downpour and the beach was curiously deserted for a holiday week-end. When we finally got to the ocean, Jack could barely contain himself and ran head-on in the direction of the water shrieking with delight. I had to keep him firmly in hand since if I let go he looked fully prepared to attempt a swim to Europe. While Dimitri loved the idea of the ocean, when he got up close to it, the power and majesty of the waves crashing into the shore proved too much and he had a minor melt-down. He isn’t the first person to be awed by the power of the ocean and I daresay he won’t be the last. Dmiitri has been quite protective of his little brother lately and he was scared that Jack and I would be carried away by the water. We got out quickly. Frankly I was afraid that if I lost my grip Jack would disappear beneath the waves. I’m going to get him swimming lessons as soon as possible, i.e. next summer when the pool reopens. There was also the issue of the jellyfish. The water appeared to be free of the annoying creatures but the stinging all over my body and the pieces of their corpses washing up on the sand gave away their presence. Jack seemed wholly unaffected by them but I needed a cold shower to get the venom off. Next time we both wear wetsuits.

Sunday was visiting day with daddy and despite my bravado in a prior posting, I was treated to the full spectacle of A. sitting on my sofa and raiding my refrigerator. At least he brought a cake. Mocha. Quite good, although it crossed my mind that he might have done something to it. I ate it anyway and it tasted vaguely of sorrow and tears. In the end D. ended up throwing him out after about two hours. The argument started over a DVD and resulted in A. giving his son the silent treatment because he felt slighted. By a 3 year old. Maturity does not necessarily come with age. Dimitri asked him to leave and he actually did. I’m not going to editorialize, just let the facts speak for themselves. We went to the pool in the afternoon and splashed around. A. was forgotten.