By JOSH RESNEK
Santa Monica Beach, California – I hate leaving Massachusetts at the end of summer.
My daughter is spending her last semester at BU’s School of Communications with an internship at CBS in Los Angeles.
I am writing this bit from California.
We all came out to California to make sure she’s set up appropriately.
This obliterated the general end of summer reverie when we try to come to terms with the summer irretrievably gone while at the same time attempting not to grow depressed that life is about to change with the seasons, again.
The beach at Santa Monica is divine.
panache. On this stretch of beach men and women are doing yoga, playing music, walking on tightropes, riding bicycles, falling in love, falling out of love, loving their lives, hat- ing their lives but somehow surviving amidst the warmth and welcome so much a part of the California coast and its people.
That it will be just like this in December is what conjures the notion of California and the endless summer.
However, summer is no less endless in California than in Massachusetts.
California grows cooler at the end of summer and the beaches empty, and the roads are not quite so packed.
The trees don’t change color. The leaves do fall. The palm trees and all the gorgeous flora remain stunningly lush and beautiful.
There is no snow, no ice, no freezing rain, no blizzards, no snowstorms, no sanding and plowing of the streets and on and on.
The roads here are packed with cars and people going here and there. The pace is frenetic. A New Englander gets the feeling that there are just too many people, too many cars, too many packed highways…but in the end, being here is a five-star experience.
The culture in LA is a triumphant mix of people from all over, everywhere, mixing it up all the time.
The miracle of America is alive and well here. Everyone is wearing masks.
The Republicans are trying to remove Gavin Newsome, the Democrat who leads the state.
The misguided souls who want Newsome removed by a recall are the idiots calling for no masks, no vaccinations, no social distancing, and a return to freedom.
In California, the lunatics have a chance of defeating the gone liberal Democrats.
The last days and hours of the Summer of 2021 are coming to an end and with it, the memories of this summer we will carry with us for many years to come.
If I may repeat myself for all of us who have lived through another summer of our lives, well, it doesn’t get any better than summer (except for Fall, Winter, and Spring) here in Massachusetts.
The summer is in its final, futile effort to carry on when in fact, it is dying away with every click of the clock.
The only saving grace is Fall.
Before we know it, the Fall will be upon us…but for the folks living in California, the climate is much more about endless summer and endless warmth and endless beauty, couched in the possibility that all of this could be swept away in a massive earthquake in a matter of three or four minutes.
I miss being in Massachusetts for the end of summer. California has been a nice replacement for the end of summer.
Thank God there’re still a few days left!