Tuesday, late afternoon in olde Nagoyaland, 35C and blazing hot under an azure blue sky. The dense seasonal clamour of cicadas is starting to peter out to the last handful of stragglers...their high pitched crescendo of clatter sounding more erratic and desperate as the late summer sun scorches the last of them out of their shelter in the trees...leaving the sidewalks scattered with their sometimes still twitching, baked out husks. Curious things. The Japanese call them 'Semis', and they make a hell of a racket at the height of summer. Their demise ushers in the autumn transition. I never used to pay much mind to these sorts of things...it used to be that one season pretty much blurred into the next. Maybe it's a symptom of ageing? I dunno. This summer has been uncharacteristically quiet...even a bit introspective. I've been feeling a bit uneasy. It's like my 'spider-sense' has been tingling...something is up. Can't quite put my finger on it. Things will start to pick up again next week, as the kids go back to school, and the summer vacation season winds down. I've always hated this time of year. Back to school season was a horror. The first day back in September was always my very least favourite of the calendar year. Cue the melancholia. Then it's off to California to visit family for a week. My trips abroad have been getting fewer and further between in recent years, and I'm feeling a bit anxious about this one in particular. My estranged father was diagnosed with early mid-stage Alzheimer's disease last year. We've not had the best, or closest relationship over the years, so there really isn't much there. I grew up in Canada, with my mum, and really didn't have much to do with him, save for a few visits when I was a teenager, which seemed to create more division than anything else. Over the last year, at my wife's urging, I've made an effort to pick up the phone every month, to try to close the gap somehow...to attempt to build a bridge - not so much for him, as for myself. There's not much of a basis, though. It's fairly clear that this will quite possibly be the last time I see him. Even though we've never been close, it's kind of a heavy thing. I tried to remember the last time that I saw my mother alive. The instant. The last glance. I couldn't. I'm trying to kind of push this out of my mind, but it's gonna be a tough one. Sigh. At that, it's time to saddle up, and hit the scorching streets of this ancient city, for my evening session awaits. Tally-ho.
