How is it August Already?!

I can't believe it's August 1. Where has the year gone?! It seems like it was only a couple of months ago that we kicked off the new year in Tofino. And wasn't it just a month ago that we were in New Orleans with our friends T & S? Surely it was only a couple of weeks ago that we spent a long weekend in the Russian River Valley for our anniversary? And, I mean, clearly it was only last week that we were galavanting around Portland? And yesterday ... wasn't it just yesterday that we were kayaking the glacial waters of Alaska?

In a couple of weeks we'll be with my family in Maine. I'm still experiencing health issues so it'll be less active for me than I had hoped - don't know how well I'll do with hiking, for example - but at least I'll get to spend quality time with people I love so, so much. We've only been to Maine once before - back in 2000, when we were still young and staying in a $25/night motor lodge in Kennebunkport was the height of travel. Of course, now that motor lodge - if it still exists - is probably $200/night and is vintage in an ironic sort of way. That's right folks, we're always hip before it was hip.

Alan was trying to schedule a work trip to Ireland for the end of September that I would have loved to join him on, but I'm having surgery in September so I don't know that I'll be recovered enough to make the trip. Boo. I would have loved to go back to Ireland with him. Between the two of us this will be the fourth trip, but we've only been there together one time.

For Thanksgiving we're set to go to London for a week, and then before you know it, it'll be Christmas and the year will start all over again.

This has truly been a very fast year. I felt like last year dragged on and on, but 2014 has certainly been a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of time.