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Christina M. Currie

Christina M. Currie's Touch of Spice column appears Fridays in the Craig Daily Press. E-mail her at director@craig-chamber.com

Craig — To some, it's a shift in the air that blows dryly through the trees, smelling of melancholy.

Others can discern the small changes in temperature - socks in the morning and a glimmer of wood smoke in the evening.

For me, it's the opening notes at the start of an NFL game that signal that the long, languid days of summer are over.

So, the sounds that drive many to the living room with a cold drink, a bowl of chips and a smile mean that the good days are ending.

Long days, warm nights and dressing without layers are now months away, and the ease of summer creeps into the stress of returning to school.

It's something that I dread as much as students do.

Because it means the end of my summer break, too.

Not that I got an actual "break," but for me, so many small things change when school's back in session.

Gone are lazy mornings, pushing the snooze button because I only had myself to get out the door.

Gone are evenings when a project, or even a few minutes of rest could precede dinner because dinner didn't have to happen at any specific time.

Gone are nights at home because you didn't really have to be anywhere else.

Back are crazy mornings, trying to juggle alarm clocks, lunch money, hair styles and the endless search for socks.

Back are boot camp evenings, where a break in discipline dominoes to the next morning's schedule.

Back are commitments like Girl Scouts, gymnastics and homework.

Things double that you never thought should - the amount of laundry that needs done, the amount of money spent on groceries, the number of miles you put on your car on a daily basis.

Really, I don't want to hear one bit of complaining from my 7- and 8-year-old daughters.

They get new clothes, a new school and new friends.

I just get more headaches.

I did feel sorry for the teachers on the first day. They looked a little frantic. I probably did, too, but they're lucky - they have a couple of months off to recuperate from the last year and mentally prepare for this one.

Still, my heart went out to the fourth-grade teachers who painstakingly printed locker number and combinations out for their incoming students. Fourth graders with lockers! Who knew?

By the end of the day, most of those papers went into the trash once it was decided that fourth graders aren't quite ready for the complexity of one to the right, two to the left and back to the right and their lockers were professionally jimmied to work without a combination.

It helps to know that I'm not the only one suffering.

But hey, the summer's only nine months - give or take - away.

Yep. I'm counting down.

And, I'm only tuning into the NFL grudgingly. I mean really, they're ruining my summer!