Summer begins to melt away

Poor, poor Pompey.
It took PORTSMOUTH 76 minutes to produce a shot on target against MANCHESTER UNITED in today's F.A. COMMUNITY SHIELD at Wembley.
Then, after the traditional curtain-raiser to the season finished goalless, two of Pompey's penalty takers took a pair of the most woeful spot kicks I have ever witnessed on television.
Last year's champions converted three penalties, and United had their first silverware of the season.
For me, today's match really marked the beginning of the end of the SUMMER OF 2008.
School registration is this coming week, and this coming weekend ushers in the PREMIER LEAGUE season.
The final days of summer really are trickling through our fingers.
I want to squeeze as much enjoyment as possible into the remaining summer days we have left.
That's why I grabbed my iPod at the end of the soccer match and sat outside. I dialed up "EVERYTHING FALLS APART," the 1983 studio debut by HÜSKER DÜ.
I view "Everything..." as a transitional album -- an audio equivalent to the changing of the seasons.
Still largely in the hardcore vein, this album does point to the pop overtones of subsequent releases by the Twin Cities' legends -- particularly with their punk cover of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman."
While I sat there listening, a SMALL HAWK swooped overhead, landing in a towering tree behind me.
Was the hawk's arrival another sign of summer's fleeting days?
Could be... or I could be wired from too much soccer and coffee and reading waaay too much significance into the things I see and hear.
Naaaaaah! That would never happen!