And so it ends...

My 2008 summer has been the longest ever.  Ever heard of a six month long summer?

Summer began the day the kids ended school in March.  After the week and a half of seeing the kids just bum around at home, the early part of April was highlighted by my birthday march into 40.  Following that, two weeks of daily travel down to Cavite for Joaquin's elimination rounds for the Junior World Golf Championships.  108 holes in total.

After golf, it was swimming lessons for the kids.  Just when we had forgotten about golf, we were surprised to have the notice come that Oaui would be taking the slot for the Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego.  The already frenetic summer became more hectic as we had to obtain the visas as well as raise the finances for the trip.

In scheduling for an appointment at the US Embassy for the July 15-18 tournament, the online appointment system stated that the next available appointment would be in August - practically a month past the tournament date.  Thankfully, through the diligence of the travel agent, they were able to obtain a June 13 interview appointment at the Embassy.  While queueing at the embassy, I heard this amusing note by others waiting for their turn that the reason why there were sudden openings in the appointment schedule was because many had backed out on this appointment date because it was Friday the 13th. Hmmmm....

School opened in mid-June.  But this was not after spending a good one month of pondering where to enroll the kids.  We finally had our eyes trained on a small Christian academy located in Makati City.  

Also in June, my wife, Regina and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  We thank God for this union which has brought us two wonderful kids and lots of precious memories.

In July, half of the month was spent in San Diego and LA.  This was already an extension of summer since summer in the Philippines had officially ended as soon as school started in June 9.

Upon returning to Manila, I had assumed summer was really over as I got back into the grind of my former job.  No, I didn't go back to my former employment.  I just had to carry out some new tasks doing the same old routine when I was still with the agency.

Then on August 8, 2008, my father-in-law passed away in Bacolod.  This led the entire family to fly to back to Bac.  It all came in perfect timing as my wife had to consume her forced leave for this half of the year and the kids had a one week break after the first quarter of school.

After a one week respite in Bacolod, we are now back in Manila and I, I surely hope to get some overdue work going.

As I click away on my keyboard, and after all these highlights to a long summer across continents, I now take the initiative to declare with finality, "Summer is really over".

New things await.

And so it begins...