Happy September, everybody. And welcome to the earliest possible Labor Day. If you’ve been holding off on going to the NYS Fair (and I suspect you have), today’s the day to get out there, as it’s $1 admission and $1 rides all day. Plus you get to see the Labor Day Parade and if you feel like hanging around ’til sis o’clock you can even see the Doobie Brothers (which at least still includes Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons from the olden days, and blessedly doesn’t include Michael McDonald – no offense, Mike, just was never into the “What a Fool Believes” or “Takin’ it to the Streets” shit. I’m more of a “Black Water” – the song, not the mercenary company – guy).

I saw the Doobie Brothers on my last night home before leaving for college back about 36 years ago. With MM, I’m afraid, but also with Skunk Baxter, who at one point came out of a jam playing his riff from Stealin’ in the Years. I went with my best buddy Rich, and I recall feeling very emotional at the end of the night when we went our separate ways for what would be the last time as “high school kids” (this may have been at least partly due to the copious amounts of Mad Dog, Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, and dope we consumed that evening).

Now I’m perfectly straight and feel highly emotional thinking about the fact that damn near 40 years have slipped by with my barely noticing (having squandered a vast majority of both the time and the potential I once rather narcissistically thought I had). I still hear from Rich now and again, mostly to have him tell me we should get together and for me to say, “yep, whenever you want, man,” and then another two or five or seven years go by before I hear the same thing again. There was a time when that bugged me, but that time has long since passed. Now, if I feel anything at all (apart from headache, heartburn, and nausea the past week or so), it’s mostly apathy.

Yesterday was kind of rainy and muggy, and since I still don’t feel that great, about all I did was read, nap, watch some “Every. Simpsons. Ever.” and then some Breaking Bad Binge. A pretty wasted weekend, and now I have to think about going back to work tomorrow. Which mostly means I need to do some laundry and maybe go get gas and groceries. But I’m really not feeling the whole gas and groceries thing, so hopefully I’ve got enough of both to make it through four days of work.

Anywho, if you’ve got the day off toss some veggie burgers and non-GMO corn-on-the-cob on the grill or go to the beach and toss the Buzzbee around or knock back a few cold ones (have a few for me – been a bit off my feed lately) and bid a fine adieu to the Summer of ’14. Here’s hoping we have a long, warm, and snow-free Autumn. And if SU could win a few football games, that’d be cool, too.