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Summer is about to end. We are nearing the final weeks of the season. Friday brought beautiful weather to Topeka. Carrie and I sat outside for a few hours Friday evening, enjoying the nice breeze and cool temperatures. It felt odd to be sitting outside comfortably on the last day of July. I mentioned how, in past years, our lawn would be burned up by July 31. We had plenty of rain before the summer heat arrived, and over the past couple of weeks, we have had several good rainstorms. As a result, the lawns still look lush and green without having to water them.
It is always a little sad when the summer months come to an end. At the same time, I am looking forward to being able to spend time outside without burning up in the heat. Friday gave us a nice preview of what we will experience over the next few months. We have a lot of limbs that have come down from various storms, so we plan to have our fire pit going most weekends. I look forward to hanging out with Carrie and spending time in our backyard. Yes, it still feels odd to be outdoors and not have our little Oliver running around, keeping watch on the neighbors and other dogs.
The fall semester is fast approaching. We are just a few weeks away from classes starting at Washburn University. It has been a busy summer preparing the campus, and a variety of projects have been priorities throughout the break. It will be good to have the campus bustling with students again. I say it every year, but it seriously feels as though the semester just ended. It feels like only yesterday that the 2025-2026 academic year was beginning. Now here we are, and a new year is about to start. I look forward to a packed campus and the challenge of finding parking spots with all the faculty, staff, and students back on campus.
Football season is just a few weeks away as well. Washburn plays its first game on August 29, and it will be an away game. Our first home game is September 5. Again, it seems like only yesterday that we were heading to Washburn football games and tailgating in our spot. We will be out there again this year. I renewed our season tickets, even though we rarely go inside the stadium, and we kept our tailgate spot.
Chiefs season starts up soon, too, with preseason beginning on August 15. I already have one of my fantasy football draft dates set, and I am working with the other league I am in to get that draft scheduled as well. I look forward to a fresh season for both my Ichabods and the Chiefs. Both teams struggled last season. I am excited to follow them throughout the year and hope they can get off to strong starts in their opening games.
We have only been camping once this year. Sad! We went back in May, and that has been our only trip so far. Traveling and then losing Oliver changed our plans to camp more often this summer. Instead, we are left planning a few camping trips to finish out the year. We already have one planned for October, and we may be able to fit in one more before the season ends. It is disappointing that we have only managed one trip so far, but hopefully we can squeeze in at least two more before the weather turns cold.
My running routine is going well. I was able to run three times last week. I have extended my running intervals and can now run a half mile before walking. I am gradually building up my stamina so I can eventually run the entire distance without walking. Right now, that is not happening, but I am making progress. This past week, I took a short break because I had a medical appointment on Thursday. That interrupted my normal running schedule, which usually includes runs on Tuesday and Thursday. I will be back at it Sunday morning.
That is all for today. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful week.