Summer is over! Football is starting! School is in session!
We’re back, baby!
Not everyone is excited about those things, least of all Mom and Buried, who lives for summer, hates how invested I am in the Dolphins’ success (or lack thereof?), and is extremely bittersweet about sending the kids back to school.
Yesterday was the first day of the new school year for both of my kids - the 8th grader, who is anxious and unhappy about it, and the 2nd grader, who is excited and happy about it (give or take the school part).
Detective Munch went off on the bus all by himself, as he’s about to turn 13 and is increasingly independent, and Mom and Buried and I walked The Hammer to school together, as he’s still young and we wanted to meet his teachers. Of course when we got there he immediately ignored us in favor of his friends, which made my wife sad.
All over social media, there are two contingents of parents: those who rejoice when their kids are back to leaving the house for the better part of the day, and those who are sad about spending so much time apart from them.
The same divide exists in my home. I’ll let you guess who is who!
Despite increasingly getting in my feelings about my kids growing up, when September comes around I can’t wait for them to go back to school. Filling their summer days with fun is hard, expensive work, and I feel that way even though my wife bears the brunt of it while I am grinding out my office job. Mom and Buried, however, doesn’t see “spending time with the kids” as work, sap that she is, and she loves the summer shenanigans we all get up to.
This year has had it’s fair share of shenanigans (check out our podcast from paradise!) but for everyone else in my family, it’s never enough. For me, I’m happy to get back to normal, even if normal means arguing with my (about to be) 13yo over his homework and dragging my 7yo to flag football (it’s his first season; wish us luck!). Things don’t get any less busy, but they do get a little more predictable, and that’s okay with me. Especially when it comes to my bank account. (P.S. I’m looking for freelance work. Message me!)
So forgive me for cheering when the metaphorical school bus finally came yesterday (Detective Munch actually takes a city bus, and The Hammer walks, but you know what I mean).
I understand that kids hate going back to school; I did too, and I didn’t have anywhere near as many - or as immersive - video games as they do. And I understand that the end of summer is tough for my wife, both because the work-and-school free bonding time we get together as a family is so short, and because it’s one more summer down in a finite amount of them (god I hate that “you only get 18 summers!” doomsdaying).
I just tend to focus, for better or worse, on the short-term perks of the end of summer: having a quieter house (I still work from home half the week), watching football, getting to wear my hoodies. What can I say, I happen to love fall!
Even with another trip to an apple orchard looming.
Social Media Round-Up
Pop Culture Stuff
Last night Mom and Buried took me to see Jeff Rosenstock for my birthday and yada yada yada I don’t feel great today.
I finished Justified: City Primeval. It was okay. I love Olyphant as Raylan, but it didn’t quite feel like the original. Which is fine. I enjoyed it, it just didn’t hit the heights of the original series, which is tremendously entertaining. Here’s hoping the storyline they teased in the final episode of Primeval actually becomes a thing!
On vacation at the Cape, we went to the drive-in movie theater, where we saw Barbie (my second time, not as fun as the first; Mom and Buried’s third time and she may not be done yet!) and Gran Turismo. GT was okay. Orlando Bloom looks like he drank from the wrong cup at the end of The Last Crusade, David Harbour was a lot of fun, and the movie is enjoyable as a typical underdog sports story even if it’s not particularly well-executed.
I’m also reading Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation, where he discusses some movies that were formative for him. It’s an easy, entertaining read - if you like Hollywood stuff (especially 70s Hollywood) and film industry talk, which I do, and also if you want to feel better about showing your young kids questionable material because maybe if you keep that up you’ll end up raising one of the signature directors of his era! (QT saw Deliverance when he was 7!)
The Dad and Buried Podcast
Quick update: Now that summer is over and we’re back to a more stable, non-travel-based routine, we’re going to get the podcast back to a regular schedule. Our next episode will be all about back to school - including mine and Mom and Buried’s warring perspectives! Listen and subscribe - you can even listen here on Substack now!