Augustitus

  

    No, it’s not the name of some hero of Greek mythology you’ve forgotten you ever heard of. It’s the annual affliction many of us suffer from and it isn’t pretty. It’s that time of year, when Memorial Day is a memory and Labor Day seems years ahead. Tempers are short, temperatures are high, leisure time is non-existent and 18 hour days are getting very old. Remember the anticipation, the hope of April and May? The snow was gone, (almost), and we had nothing to look forward to but sunny days and good pay. We basked in golden thoughts of paying all the bills that had piled up over the long, work-less winter. We relished the thought of cook-outs, dove into dreams of sitting poolside, even burned for the days we could spend lying in the sun. Well, those days have arrived and the only ones I see lying in the sun are leaving by ten on Saturday morning. If we are lucky enough to have a day off, we spend it not by the pool, but usually by a washing machine somewhere, doing a week’s worth of dirty laundry. As for cook-outs, we barely have time to wolf down a sandwich in the 15 minutes between jobs. So, if we’re a little grouchy, well, look at the calendar!

   Augustitus is a lot like the hiccups in that everybody has a cure. Some say take a walk in the dunes at dawn. The town is certainly a different place at 6am. Even downtown is quiet and sedate, if you can ignore the occasional tattered butterfly doing the walk of shame. Many people tell me they conquered the affliction by insisting on a full day off, but that’s chancy. Over the summer people leave employment, and you could be stuck doing doubles in mid-August, never a good thing. Getting enough sleep is crucial to fighting this condition. Even if you don’t have time for anything else, GET SOME SLEEP!  For many years I tried to cure it with drink, but that never worked and doing a shift behind the bar with a hangover is hell.

   So, what to do? Tough it out, Baby, tough it out. You’re not alone. We’re all in the same boat, and while it might feel like it’s sinking into the litter of Carnival right now, Labor Day is coming. This is the last big push. It’s all good from here. Just get through the next week. Pep talk over.