As promised, as soon as July 4th weekend is over, it’s a pretty quick slide downhill to the end of summer. Soon it will be Christmas. Already as I leave my show at 8p and go out to meet and greet my dear audience, the sun has set. April might be the cruelest month, but August has a nasty side to it.

Because I left the island for India for a week of celebrations for my partner’s Dad’s 80th birthday, I missed most of PTown’s Family Week. From what I did see and heard, they had a blast. The weather was hot and glorious and the beach at Herring Cove was a festival of multi-colored inflatable. COLLAGE, the group for children of gay parents was a huge presence this summer. I’m glad of that. In previous summers, there were just little kids from one to five and then nothing. I was worried that the gay parents were trading in the older kiddos. One way or the other, we are changing the structure of family. ‘Bout time.

This week is the lull week before Carnival. The first half of the week, everyone re-tools from Family Week and the second half everyone tries to remember what Carnival Theme is this year. Where is that formula for papier mache? The World Famous, second annual Drag Kickball Game is a riotous mid-week fundraiser.

Back to school ads have appeared. Or I just noticed them. A red leaf appears like a shock in thickets of green. It’s no longer light at 530 a.m. Soon George is off to vacation in Texas. The chickenshit Democrats, who couldn’t forestall the bill for more wiretapping, are off on recess. Even Iraqi lawmakers are taking the month off. I can’t make myself watch another candidate debate. Almost every third car visiting Ptown sports a variant of those Countdown to Bush’s last day bumper sticker.

This just in: this year’s carnival theme [thank god for ptown.org] is the very cheeky and redundant Fairy Tales. Thank goodness!! At this point fairies are about the only thing I believe in! Am off to get batteries for my wand.