Here comes August againthe month of endurance and expectation. If we can just make it through this month, then autumnal relief will be in sight. For you south Alabaman folks, flipping the calendar over to August means you have about two months before some relief from the relentless heat is in sight. Up here in the Tennessee valley, we'll not have to wait quiet so long.

Relief from heat and humidity is not all we have to look forward to. School starts soon. The boring last days of the kids' summer vacation are about to end. Even though they might complain, the little dears will welcome school. New clothes, new friends, new challenges will chase boredom away. And I don't need to explain the relief ahead for Moms and Dads when their children are herded from houses and yards into the classroom. But that's a trade-off too. With the return to school will come carpool schedules, homework and enforced bedtimes. Remember that fun? But it's a part of the season just as surely as are football games, county fairs and school buses clogging morning traffic. For those of us who no longer have children in school there is relief of a different kind. We can go to Wal-mart in peace. No more screeching children or wild-eyed mothers from 9 til 2, and no more carts with perpetually sticky handles. Hurry, August.

William Shakespeare wrote, "Summer's lease hath all too short a date." I cannot agree with old Will. Summer is plenty long. In fact, as of today I've had enough of it. I'm a daughter of the South, but I do believe my internal thermostat was FedEx'd down from Canada.

So for another month or so I'll lurk inside during the daylight hours waiting for that autumnal relief that's meandering this way.