The End of Summer

The best time of year for some.

The End of Summer

The beach is clear. I have at least 200 yards of smooth, clean sand on either side as does the next person. Most vacationers have gone home, the kids are in school. At 9am I'm sitting ten feet from the surf. It’s the end of the summer. It's sunny with clear skies directly above. The salt water in front of me is eighty-five degrees, almost the same as the air. The surf is maybe two or three feet with mesmerizing clear breakers curling not far out.

Coffee, swim, read, repeat – that’s the plan for the next five hours.

As the morning progressed rain followed the shoreline toward my spot. The clouds at the top are sunlit and bright, happily white, darker as you look down and then thick haze to the ground. The line of rain moves steadily but not quickly. Under the clouds the rain creates a deepening darkness.

After a short swim the beach population is even sparser than it was. Most everyone has walked back to their cars or hotel rooms. The smell of rain is strong and the dark, wet line moving up the beach is close. There is only myself and a couple of older folks under an umbrella down the beach.

It’s time for me to make a decision.

Should I get out of the rain?

I reviewed my plan.
Rain was out of scope.
I performed a risk assessment and developed mitigating actions.
I vetted the mitigating actions.
I defined additional effort and assessed the effect on the original timeline.
I checked and modified the budget, adjusting for each mitigating action.
I evaluated the cost/risk and considered my risk tolerance.
I checked for outstanding issues and found none.
Finally, a detailed check of the modified plan.
After careful analysis the decision is made.

What the hell!

I’m already wet!

It was a fantastic, all encompassing warm rain. The kind with big drops falling straight down replacing sweat with fresh water running down your face and off your nose. To add to the entertainment there was lightning a few miles out – sudden, clear bolts going straight to the water.

The rain moved on and left us with gray, wet and breezy weather. An elderly mom and her daughter walked by. “Wasn’t that great!”.

Mom was a marginally older than myself and her daughter was marginally younger. We talked for a few minutes.

It was a moment of our own. We were all older persons who, after decades of avoiding rain, were able to sit and enjoy this one.

We didn’t need to run for cover. We didn’t have to concern ourselves with going into work soaked, doing errands in the rain with kids or keeping a baby dry while running into the house. We didn’t need to worry about soaked feet or wet grocery. We let it rain and let the sun dry us when the rain was done. The three of us understood how great the last hour had been.

It’s the end of summer, the beginning of off-season, the best time of the year.