Seasonal Time

We have lived in Las Vegas for five years. There are many benefits to living in Las Vegas, not the least of which are mild winters and early springs. One of the downsides is the absence of a changing of seasons. We have color out our backdoor all winter long. Spring comes in early to mid-February and the Bradford Pears are good for about 10 days. We do have flowers that bloom for the next 3 months and many of them last all summer and well into the fall.

Cedar Rapids, IA - Donna and Sally

However, I have noticed over the last two springs and winters there has been a change in how I perceive time. After living in the Midwest for almost 40 years I became very acclimated to 4 seasons and constructed part of my feelings and expectations of time based on the expectation of 4 seasons. 


Those of us who have four seasons know they are considerably different. They each make contributions to our lives, both in perceptions, attitudes, and activities. Consciously or unconsciously we schedule ourselves within the context of our seasons. In many ways we consciously and unconsciously schedule ourselves around those seasons/ Just as sport is seasonally based, we too are seasonally based. Most of us are only indirectly aware of our linkage to seasons. When you lose the seasons you struggle to gain a new sense of seasonal time. 


For example, as we came to the end of the spring semester at the university, I have found myself thinking it can't possibly be the end of the academic year. We had missed fall and winter. I felt a sense of incompleteness, or emptiness, as we moved into our summer. Absent from my Las Vegas experiences are extended periods of fall, spring, and winter. We have all four seasons in Las Vegas, but to a much lesser degree. We have the colors year-round as well as similar weather, just varying degrees temperature with an occasional (and I use the term occassional loosely) rain shower or snow shower.

Fall in Terre Haute, IN - One of the prettiest places for fall
that we ever lived in.

What I'm feeling as we come to the end of the academic year is a lack of closure in my seasonal time. Intellectually I know that May signals the start of spring, the end of winter and the school year, but in the absence of easily definable seasons I feel incomplete. There is an absence that I stuggled to understand until I realized I'm still a product of midwestern seasonal time. It's unsettling, even after you understand it. I suspect that if I stay in Las Vegas long enough I will ultimately change my personal conception of seasonal time.

I always took seasonal time for granted. I suspect that if I had lived in Las Vegas my entire life I wouldn't be influenced by the lack of seasons. But since I have spent the bulk of my life living through the 4 seasons I find the absence of the seasons creating a dissonance of how I perceive closure. I am not even sure that "closure" is the proper term, but that's the feeling I get in the spring. "It can't be spring when we have missed fall and winter." But interesting side note is that these feelings didn't occur in the first three years that we were here. But this year I have noticed it more than ever. Even spending 2 1/2 weeks in cold in wintery Idaho didn't make up for a full winter season. Don't get me wrong, I'm not missing winter - just the seasonal time winter creates for me.

Denver, CO while we were visiting the Allen family

Seasonal time is as real as clock time. With a clock we can monitor the time of day. With the change in seasons we can monitor the change in temperature, daylight, color, clothing, and the like. When we change our seasonal time we lose a part of what has been ourselves. I don't think that is negative, but I've never seen anyone write about seasonal time - although I know they have. For those of you with 4 seasons, enjoy them. For those of us without 4 seasons we will just adapt.

Taken at a county park south of Terre Haute, IN. This represents the king
of summer and green that we miss in Las Vegas. It is also one of my
favorite photos.

Wordless Wednesday

Remembering Summer

Family reunion time in Iowa with almost all 16
grandchildren sitting still.

Summer is officially over. How do I know? School has started, or in my case, I'm back to work at the university. But what a great summer it has been. For the first time in 10 years I took the whole summer off - granted, not by choice. But the reality is that I'm more prepared for fall then I have been for a number of years. I know there are those who scoff at a "summer off," but that's one of the reasons I went into higher education. Most of those summers over the last 35 plus years have involved travel, research, writing, and an occasional class. This summer I had great hopes for all of those things and the travel provided the best experiences of all.

It's not an official reunion without cake
and ice cream - and LOTS of it!

Trips to Idaho, Utah, and Iowa were stupendous. We were gone for almost all of July and into August and while we thought that was a little long, there were a lot of years when a 3-week vacation was standard for us, but as the children left home and started their own families we found we had not single, but multiple destinations to visit including, at various times, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Iowa, Michigan, California, Colorado, New York, North Carolina, Missouri, and England. That idea of a single summer vacation has morphed into year-round vacation opportunities that are usually shorter. Much of the notion of a 3-week vacation was built around the need to drive from the mid-west to California. Now we hop a plane for those longer destinations.

Summer used to be a time for our families to visit us, but since we moved to the desert there is less interest in seeing us during our summer head and more incentive for us to visit further north - or to the California beaches.

The Allen's hamming it up!

Yet, our summer trips remain a staple of our opportunity to visit family. We have a longer period to stay at each home and we can try to get quality time in at several homes. This summer we were able to spend time with the Bake and Bradley families in Idaho, the Hansen's in Utah, the McLean's in Iowa, and JoAnn spent time with the Dunn's (less David) in San Diego. By the time late August got here we were ready for a quiet few months at home, but we are already planning Christmas in Idaho with a new grandson.

Summer has been good to us. We have enjoyed it. We expect to continue to enjoy it in the future and while it remains the foundation of our vacation, we now visit year round because we love seeing our families. We feel blessed by these opportunities.

Grandma celebrating her birthday with all of her very
best friends - her family!

Wordless Wednesday

Notes, Thoughts, and Mostly Ramblings

It has been a busy start to the fall semester. I feel like I've been behind since the day classes started. We have already completed week 4 - now over 25% complete - and it was the first week I was actually at work for 5 days. Between holidays and family events it has been busy.

Some random (emphasis on random) thoughts I have had over the last few days/weeks that have little or no meaning, but then again. . . .

• We are about to see the beginning of fall in Las Vegas. That means the "dog days of summer" are almost over (see photo below). If we can put 5 days together without reaching 100 degrees then I think we will officially be in fall. We are still looking forward to the day we can keep our windows open for several nights, not just one now and then.
• I've noticed that we are anxious to get past summer the way we used to be anxious to get past winter. Now winter is just a diversion from summer.
• On the positive side, we did not turn our furnace on last year until almost mid-December.
• Even in Las Vegas if I wash my car it rains. Of course a rain here may only cover 2 or 3 square blocks, but my car always seems to be in that zone.
• Ever notice how your phone rings all week long (our's does) and on the weekend no one calls because they are busy with family or football games or whatever?
• My daughters write their blogs all week, I write mine on weekends. If I write during the week it's a clear indication I've found some free time.
• It doesn't matter how much quilting material JoAnn has, she seems to need a little more. In fact today she was cleaning out her closet to make room for her new material. Plus she purchased more storage containers to put the material in. That's okay, I love her.
• She could say the same thing about me purchasing art prints, or shirts, or shoes, or ... well you get the idea.
• We are now allowed to water only 3 days a week (September & October) and it must be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Imagine my surprise as I was sitting at the kitchen table and I heard the watering system (we use a drip line) come on this morning (Saturday). All I could see was a big fine if the water authority caught me. I ran to the garage and sure enough the "watering brain" thought it was Wednesday.

That's really about enough for now, since not much of it made sense, but gave me a chance to dodge doing work I really should be doing.

I took this photo at a scooter rally the Bradley's came down for. It speaks well for the "dog days of summer" and how we should just embrace the experience.

A Day at the Park

We had a busy morning getting Ellen off to school and Dean off to Mexico, then Alexis, Danny, Deano & I were off for donuts and back for a little relaxation. By 11:30 am we'd had enough relaxation and we decided we were hungry. So it was off to the Bradley's to pick up the family, some food, and hit the park. We did just that. A dad, grandpa, and 5 children under 8. More appropriately an 8 year old and 4 under 4. We are brave or stupid and I haen't decided which just yet.

Nothing like lunch in the park.

I just picked out a few of the cuter photos for here and put most of the photos on my flickr account.

Come on, does it get any cuter than this?

The kids had a great time. About 2:30 pm we noted they were moving awfully slowly. At that point Jay and I figured it was time to take them home. Sure enough Deano slept all the way home and Danny is asleep now. These are the experiences memories are built of. I'm sure glad I have this time in Idaho while the daughters converge in Las Vegas.

Bonnie moving from the end of the slide to her next adventure.

Alexis showing off!

Cousins having great fun! Lookout world!

End of the Season

It's the end of the season. Students are taking finals, graduation is scheduled for Saturday afternoon and then summer officially begins. Who cares what the calendar says, when classes are over, faculty are on leave, emails drop to almost zero - that's the REAL start of summer.


We held our last faculty meeting of the academic year - another sure sign of summer - and we won't have another one for 3 months and 2 weeks (not like I'm counting). I do love the academic year because it is so full of vitality, energy, and enthusiasm (the latter for the first 9 weeks of the semester). But today, as the semester winds down, we see students excited about summer internships, faculty making plans for travel, and of course writing.

In some ways the time between graduation and the start of the fall semester is the writing season. Every year I find myself busy with multiple writing projects. This writing season I am focusing on a new edition of my entry level textbook, and no, I don't write it alone. I discovered a long time ago it is a lot more efficient to write a book with colleagues you know and trust. I enjoy the writing, the planning, and especially finishing the book. There is a sense of accomplishment when it all comes together and you see it in print for the first time. Yes, I suppose it could be pride, but I try to hold that down.

It is the writing that I enjoy, painful as it is, and for me writing can be a slow and tedious process. What I enjoy is the research, gathering sorting, and organizing material to put in the book. It is a chance to catch up on what I see as new. It is a learning process, and I enjoy learning.

As the academic season closes the writing season opens and I have pen, paper, computer, and googlescholar in hand and am ready to go.