Well brothers and sisters, it’s hard to believe that another summer is rapidly drawing to a close. While August has only just begun, it feels like fall is quickly approaching and soon Bowling Green will settle down for another blustery Valley Forge-like winter (only hopefully without the scurvy. Eat those greens!).

First of all, I’d like to congratulate those of you who are graduating this summer. You’ve worked hard, and you all deserve a round of applause for having the motivation and foresight to get your degrees. Just because your graduation ceremony might be a little smaller than the spring and fall ones doesn’t mean you should celebrate your momentous accomplishment any less. We all wish you the best of luck.

The weather has been great this summer, hasn’t it? Not too hot, not too cold. And really rainy, if you’re into that kind of thing. I was glad to see a good thunderstorm or two. It’s been great riding my bike around or just sitting in front of Grounds for Thought watching the world go by.

And let’s not discount fall either, because some people really enjoy the changing leaves.

Well, leaf people, you’re about to get your wish. Soon the mass of trees in Bowling Green will begin turning orange and brown and red and all sorts of hues. And then the leaves will fall. Everywhere.

Soon the sound of people cussing at golf balls will be replaced by the sound of children sledding.

Soon the mini skirts will disappear and the Capri pants will go back to their normal length again, like flowers blooming in reverse.

Soon it will be snow falling from the sky instead or rain.

Soon we’ll all be driving to school in a Level Two snow emergency. Again.

Soon the whine of hordes of motorcycles will be replaced by the low-powered roar of a snowplow vainly attempting to clear Wooster street.

Which is good, because I really hate motorcycles. I would have to say motorcycles are my least favorite part of the summer experience.

Motorcycles are loud. Your average Harley-Davidson produces enough noise pollution to stun a Canadian moose. I know it’s too much when I can still hear one like five miles away.

Motorcycles are also uneconomic. All that gas and pollution just to get one person somewhere. And of course bikers think it’s cool to travel in packs, so that makes it worse. C’mon guys, can’t you just carpool?

And is it me, or do motorcyclists seem to feel that as soon as they get on a bike they immediately become immune to all traffic laws? I always see them zipping down I-75 like they’re qualifying for the Daytona 500. I always chuckle at the ones who don’t have helmets on, either. Mobile organ donors, my dad called them, presumably for their propensity to get in crashes and wind up in comas. But then, my dad was a truck driver.

While I’m sure that there are responsible, law-abiding motorcyclists who enjoy biking for the sense of freedom and power it gives them, like my boss, and not because motorcycles give one the ability to fly down Main Street at 75 m.p.h., many of the bikers I’ve seen this summer are loud, irresponsible menaces to the roadways.

So what I’m saying here is that while summer is great, and it’s easy to slip into whimsy while talking about it (like I may have just done), there are things about it that definitely suck and won’t be missed, like mosquitoes and one and a half -hour classes four days a week. And trucker hats, which, God willing, will hopefully be a seasonal thing (Please!).

So when, in a month or two, you’re trundling around Bowling Green in sub-zero weather, try to keep fixed in your half-frozen brain a picture of all the summer things that you don’t miss. Hopefully this, along with copious amounts of alcohol and some cuddle time with that special someone, will keep you warm throughout the forthcoming long, deep freeze.

E-mail Shaun at [email protected].