Lebodome: What a Way to End the Summer

From Scott Leibowitz. Find him @Lebodome on Twitter or email him at [email protected].

Maybe we were all having too much fun at happy hours. Maybe it was penance for complaining about the awful heat of July that made it unbearable to take a walk without craving a slurpee. Or maybe, just maybe, as Michelle Bachman joked, it’s because our own District can’t seem to remember the classic kindergarten lesson of “play nice together” (I don’t for a second endorse this. That woman is batsh*t). What the heck happened to our summer and how did it end like this?

For me, my end of summer was so out of whack that I am not sure what kind of adjectives should be used. But like most people, it can be told through the medium of the natural disasters (don’t love that term) we have had recently.

Earthquake: One a perfectly normal Tuesday, I made plans to enjoy some outdoor lunch with fellow Borderstan writer Laura. We grab our lunch and find a quiet seat behind McFadden’s around 25th and K Streets NW. In the midst of a great catch-up session, Laura turns to me and asks if our bench is shaking or if is she going crazy. I noticed that yes, it is a bit, but I blame it on either a metro under us (the Metro doesn’t go to Gtown so not that), squirrels (nope) or a moving truck (nah).

About 15 minutes later someone randomly asks us if we are ok from the earthquake, and we both think he is drunk. We then hit the twitter waves and see that we laughed through a 5.8-er. Of course, we then noticed everyone has cleared the offices and traffic is gridlocked. I almost feel bad — I didn’t notice a freakin’ earthquake. What’s wrong with me?

Irene: So I go home to New Jersey (yeah yeah, insert your comment) last week, and on the Thursday before the storm, I attend easily the best baseball game I have ever seen. The New York Yankees hit 3 grand slams, a feat that has never been done in the history of professional sports. How could life get any better?

I’ll tell you!! Some pissed off woman named Irene showed up and decided she had enough of Jersey and forced me and my extended family to stay in the house and enjoy the best hurricane the state has seen in a century. I will say my small suburb was spared from flooding, power outages and water sports, but it ruined my plans for an amazing live fantasy football draft (it was done online, not the same). Plenty of Jersey is still recovering; luckily we put our pool furniture back outside Monday, but I still don’t have power.

Earthquakes. Hurricanes. What a way to end the summer.  At least we got my favorite season coming up: fall. What’s not to love about playoff baseball, beginning of the NFL and maybe some college football that will be declared ineligible in a few years. Hopefully it doesn’t snow anytime soon.

Thoughts of the Week: What are ya’ll up to for Labor Day? I hope it’s a BBQ…

Links! Links! Ice Cold Links!

• The greatest sporting event comes to NYC this week, the US Open.
• If you are a fan of “The Wire”, enjoy this.
• United States children are better than Japanese children… at baseball.