In the last days of Summer, when I begin to mourn the loss of long sunny days, the sun blazes down on us with a vengeance. It is as if it saying, “You want heat, Julie? I’ll have you wishing for colder days in no time!”  I sit in my home, determined to not turn on the air conditioning, and… nap.

I know that Fall is coming and, with it, shorter and cooler days. We got a preview last week. I put my heavier bedspread on my bed because of it and curl up into the fetal position. I want warmth.

Yes, even in the 90+ degree weather, I’m still not ready for the seasons to change.

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The distance of my long rides is making its ascent. Paired with YaYa’s football schedule, I am hard-pressed to find a time slot adequate to fit the required time-in-the-saddle needed to go the scheduled distance. My mind thinks back to how I handled this during peak marathon training when I would break the run across the day. A 3 hour long run pales in comparison to the time needed to cover 60-70 miles on bike. Some days, it seems impossible to do even that – even when given two days to do it. The weekends are simply too short.

You make the best with what you’ve got to work with. Am I right?

Things never go as perfectly as you’d like. When life happens, the biggest challenge is forgiving yourself for falling short of the plan. This, in my opinion, is harder than if the plan had been executed perfectly. As your event nears, there is the added challenge of trusting that overall you are trained enough to line up on the day of your event.

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I refer to the accidental dialing of a friend or family as “butt dialing” when, in fact, my phone rarely gets put into my back pocket. Somehow, when you say, “Oops, that was a butt dial,” people completely understand.

My tendency for this action has been increasing lately. Perhaps it is my subconscious reaching out to those listed in my “favorites” who have not received the communication exchange that favorites should receive. Last week, Jeff was the lucky recipient of my wayward dialing. It was such a pleasant surprise to hear his voice when he called me back. Of course, the conversation was entertaining; it always is with Jeff.

Today, it was my favorite sister-in-law who received the butt dial. She listened to two full minutes of XM radio, me and at the stop light. Thank goodness one of my favorite sing-a-long songs wasn’t playing. I was just returning to my car when she returned the call. I spent the next 40 minutes in Trader Joe’s parking lot catching up on the goings-on in Family South and Family North.

With a generous helping of August birthdays, oddly matched with a few sad anniversaries, the conversation moved to births and deaths. Of course we talked about time & healing — and how the passing of those we loved sometimes feels like it happened just yesterday and other times feels like forever ago. Naturally, the discussion moved from the boys’ healing to mine. And of course, because I have the best in-laws ever, my sister-in-law was happy to hear how I’ve been spending time with a wonderful man. She was even happier to hear how very much in-love I am.

We ended the call shortly there after and I asked her to extend the invitation to all of Family South to butt dial me any time. A few minutes later, she (or her butt rather) called back with a similar call to the one that signaled her to call me. I took it as her subconscious way of saying “I love you too.”