Cue the tumbleweeds

Summer time in the ‘Boro. What a great time to live here. Not because of the high 90’s heat, the 137% humidity or the swarms of pain in the ass gnats. No, not that. It’s because of the lack of students.

With most students either taking off for a summer vacation, going home, or graduating and now looking for future employment; the population of el ‘Boro has plummeted. It’s not a ghost town or anything though, there’s still us townies and those students braving summer classes. But that’s still a lot less than what was here a couple of weeks ago.

All I know is that I seriously enjoy when the students go home for a few weeks. It gives me a little more peace and quiet around town (fewer parties in my immediate vicinity), a lot less traffic (shaving 3-5 minutes across town), and most importantly: I can go just about anywhere I want and do just about whatever I want without a huge amount of people irritating the shit outta me while I’m trying to do it (i.e. Wal-Mart or the bar).

Especially when going to the bar. With less drunks in town, I don’t always have to adhere to my usual battle plan of “early in, early drunk, early out” because there’s no one to impede my progress to get a refill of my precious big beer. And if there is, I probably know them and can use the tried and true “Yes, please” to get them to get me a refill. Southern Hospitality now replaces Southern Hostility.

But it won’t last forever. Just like the salmon of Capistrano, they always come back. And when they do, I’ll start counting the weeks until the predetermined time when they migrate home for the winter: Christmas. That’ll be their present to me: leaving. Mine to them? Nothing. I celebrate Festivus.

D