Franz Joseph Haydn was a composer during the Classical Period's mid-to-late 1700's. He had a great sense of humor and one bit of musical evidence of his humor is his Farewell Symphony. During the performance of the Farewell Symphony for Prince Esterhazy, a Hungarian royal to whom Haydn was employed, Haydn had his musicians leave the stage one at a time. The reason? The musicians were tired and needed a vacation and this was Haydn's way of informing the Prince who, incidentally, did let the musicians have their much-needed respite.
Why am I relating this story about a long-dead composer and his quirky Farewell Symphony? Because, at this time of year, the scenario of leaving one-by-one is what happens to the boats in a marina. Unless a boat from your dock area departs, leaving both an auditory clue and a visual clue via an open slip, you are not likely to notice the gradual decline in the number of boats, until one day you look out over the docks and realize that there are more open slips than occupied spaces.
With a rapidly approaching autumn, the evidence of boaters' departures is everywhere - from the overloaded dock carts, brimming with blankets, comforters, and pillows to the vehicles with their trunks and side doors open while people cram their summer belongings into the interior spaces, hoping that everything will fit one way or the other. Other signs are trash receptacles stuffed to over-flowing and the unused-food bin filled to the top, waiting to be emptied and delivered to the local food pantry.
Packing up any home or RV (land or otherwise), at the culmination of a season, signals the end of fun and the return to reality. Just as students decry the end of summer and the beginning of the school's calendar year or snowbirds mourn the closure of fun-filled winter months with friends, so do summer's players feel a similar sense of gloom as Labor Day comes and goes and with its passage, the arrival of Canadian air and the departure of Canada geese.
There is a season for everything and I now now turn, turn the calendar pages toward fall.
Ancora imparo
