Because I've been a little bit of a slacker with the blog posts this week, I decided to see if I could get some other people take up the task, and wrote to my mother, father and husband yesterday asking them to send me a poem, haiku or a few brief lines about August. Hot, slow, lazy August. Needless to say, my father answered the call. Below, what he has to say about this, the last month of summer, and a vacation he and my mother have planned, and even the state of the nation. Please feel free to add your own thoughts about August, the heat, summer in general, vacations or whatever you'd like in the comments section.

(By the way, when I responded to my father's email, ensuring he meant this for Internet publication, he responded that, yes, he "wrote it for the bog.")

Charles Kuralt wrote a wonderful book years ago called "America." He had one chapter for each month in the year on the best place in America to be that month.

Where to go in August? That great little Maine town, Boothbay Harbor. And where are mom and dad going in August? Where else? This makes me very happy and also somewhat sad. Happy because it's going to be such a fun two weeks. And sad because so many people this country have so little of the wonderful things the nation has to offer.

Not just nice vacations--but the basics--health care, good education, a life with dignity. But we're going to get there and that really makes me happy.