Just before midnight, and the beginning of this day, I heard the first cricket sing the 'fall song.' Only one cricket was heard. He was across the street and in the neighbor's hedgerow. Yet, he was the first to be heard this year. The very first cricket to sing the fall song. Tomorrow night there will be fifty or so, the next night maybe 200, the next night - hundreds and the following even more. This is the time of the year that this song is my clue, as a teacher, that school is just around the corner and I need to get ready for that first day. In fact we will unofficially start working next week. The students will return and we are in class in just under 4 weeks.

Oh S*&*T! Where did my summer go?

And it all started with the crickets.