EDITORIAL:Lazy summer days are now almost over

OK, so pull out your “summer to-do” list. Have you checked much off yet?

Maybe “see Shakespeare in the park” or “eat too much at the fair” just got crossed off. Possibly the big family vacation happened in July. But what about everything else on there?

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but check the calendar: We’re midway through August, way past midway through summer, and the big event on the horizon? It isn’t setting off fireworks in the streets (if you live in Costa Mesa, anyway). It’s going back to school. (That strange sound you hear is kids crying and parents rejoicing simultaneously).

The days are getting shorter, the nights — well, the nights aren’t getting cooler — and we’ve even seen a few trees with leaves changing color.

It isn’t that this summer has flown by usually fast, or without plenty of highlights. The weather here has been hot, of course, but always cooled a bit by the ocean — few absolutely unbearable days as there have been a few more miles inland. And the temperatures in the ocean and harbor have been record-setting and, well, delightful. It isn’t often you can stay in Pacific Ocean waters here for hours on end, but when those waters are climbing to 75 degrees … is there anything like it?

The Orange County Fair was its typical fun-filled self. Besides Shakespeare, there have been concerts in the park all summer. You should have made it to the Balboa Fun Zone, this being its last summer before the nautical museum moves in. You’ve probably seen a few movies and might see a few more. There should have been walks on the beach at sunset and lazy mornings long after the sun rose. Maybe an electric boat trip in the harbor one afternoon.

And there should have been everything else you were planning to do this summer. Have you gotten to them, we ask again?

Because there is no doubt about it: Summer is almost over. So if you haven’t done all the things you planned, you better get started.