Back to reality.

Byline: The Register-Guard

A Western Oregon summer can stretch deep into September, and even October can bring clear skies and warm days. Indeed, some of the best weather of the year still lies ahead, particularly on the coast. But on Labor Day, it becomes impossible to pretend any longer that summer will last forever.

Labor Day has a frantic aspect that's lacking from the other holidays that bring three-day weekends in the middle of the year. Memorial Day can be wet and raw - but it contains the promise of summer vacation about to begin. The Fourth of July often marks the start of high summer, with a seemingly endless procession of long days and balmy nights stretching ahead.

By Labor Day, the illusion of permanence no longer can be sustained. It began to crumble with the first back-to-school sale. It eroded further the first time an autumnal tang could be tasted in the air. And now there's an almost desperate awareness that if this year is going to include any more camping trips, outdoor home repair projects and afternoons at the pool, they'd better happen soon.

After Labor Day, it's back to reality. School starts this week, and it's not only students who will regain a degree of structure in their lives - the rhythms of school transportation routines, sports and activities affect nearly everyone. The political season shifts into a higher gear - even though this is an off year, the presidential campaigns already are under way, and November will bring elections on important statewide and local issues. The pace quickens in most workplaces - no longer will vacation schedules leave skeleton crews to answer the phones and keep the doors open.

Labor Day offers a final respite before all that happens. There's still time - a little time, at least - to do at least a few of those things that were planned earlier. A three-day weekend is long enough to go just about anywhere in Oregon, or long enough to complete an ambitious project around the house. It's also long enough to enjoy a solid stretch of doing not much at all.

A rafting trip over Labor Day, however, isn't quite the same as the same trip in July. A neighborhood barbecue is different today than it would have been earlier. It's not just that the river is lower and warmer, or that the subjects of conversation center more on work and school than on travel and adventure. The biggest difference is the knowing that the next outing, and the next gathering, might happen next year instead of next weekend.

Against such melancholy thoughts, people can console themselves by recalling that summer isn't over officially for another three weeks - autumn begins late this year, on Sept. 23. And even after Western Oregon enters the darker half of the year, the residue of summer lingers, and each warm afternoon is greeted as a gift.

But on Labor Day, with Halloween decorations showing up in the stores, there's no escaping it: Nothing lasts forever, not even the eternal pleasures of an Oregon summer.