Geoff Duncan

In the U.S., August is the only month lacking holidays. Oh, sure, March, April, and June don't carry federal holidays, but they each sport widely-observed traditions: March and April trade off the Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent/Easter cycle, and June at least gets Father's Day and Flag Day. October can be a little sparse too, but the Feds give everyone Columbus Day off, and the Halloween has morphed into a multi-billion dollar industry. (Never mind that people should get October 31 off for entirely different reasons.)

But August…August gets nothin'.

I've long had a sneaking suspicion the mystical "they" who sanction holidays don't want to drop anything in August because it's the height of summer. The kids are out of school and lots of people are on vacation (heck, France pretty much takes the whole month off). Plus, scheduling a holiday during August might seem like a waste of a perfectly good excuse for a three-day weekend at some other time of year. You know, when folks might actually be working.

For me, August has always been a time of resolutions and endings, not new things or beginnings. The feeling probably stems from public school years: when August rolled around, I could palpably feel the edges of my freedom shrinking into a tighter and tighter circle, soon to vanish entirely. My parents—both teachers—once tried to convince me that by the end of summer I'd be so bored I'd look forward to going back to school. Until I was old enough to drive—and do things like work a job and play in bands—it was closer to the truth to say I was so bored with school that I began planning for summer by the time the leaves began to fall.

So I guess it's fitting that, this year, August will be filled with conclusions. I've got a series of major endeavors wrapping up—including a major Web development gig and two book projects—and I'm putting the finishing touches on some long-simmering tasks like separating myself entirely from an incompetent financial institution and helping get a new roof on the digs.

But instead of feeling trapped as August rolls along, I feel horizons expanding and opportunities beckoning. Maybe this year, watching August roll off into the sunset won't be so bad after all.

A Seattle August sunset