I’ve been thinking.

Seriously. I’ve thought about you every day since my last post on the 26th of last month. Last month! If this doesn’t set the record for time between visits, it has to be close. Did you miss me? Please say yes. It’s not because my brain hasn’t been full of things to tell you, mind. Rather, by the time I drag it out, guzzle the coffee, hit the shower and the road, the quiet time has evaporated.

Mark me: someday I will live the life of the semi-retired and do a stay-at-home job. I’d love to be paid to write, like our RtB fiend (and my writing mentor and overall cool guy) Ross. He might tell you “it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” and he’d probably be right because many jobs rarely are as glamorous as they seem, but I aspire to that level of independence and, admittedly, forced creativity once in a while. I wonder if he ever feels pressure to be brilliant at dinner when the muse simply isn’t talking. Ross, if you’re reading today, give us a comment, would you?

OK, as mentioned, I’ve had several things to talk to you about, but the “Round Tuit” has eluded me. First — how’s your Labor Day morning coffee going? I overslept this morning (thank you for that 3:30 a.m. trip outside to check the weather, Pax). We had the Js overnight, which was really nice. Speaking of the Js…

Many of you already know from Facebook posts that son Seamus and the Js were in a terrible rollover car accident Saturday, from which they miraculously and inexplicably all walked away with minor injuries. He misjudged the turn into his driveway, and when he jammed on the brakes, they locked. In an effort to turn out of the skid, he hit the ditch and the car propelled itself into a roll and landed on its roof.

The sheriff told Seamus that when he rolled up on the scene, he expected fatalities.

Eight-year-old Jake was able to free himself from his seatbelt and crawl out the shattered back window. Justin was stuck, hanging from his booster seat, not strong enough to release his seat belt. When Seamus came to, after being smacked in the face with the airbag, he said at first, he didn’t even realize he was hanging upside-down. After a second, he realized what was going on, and went into lifesaving mode. He began shouting the boys’ names and struggling to free himself. He crawled out the broken driver’s side window and pulled Justin to safety through another window. He said the boys were surprisingly calm (likely the shock), and they all three stood looking at the wreckage. The EMTs examined the boys and declared them just bruised up a bit (Jake has a bit of a sore neck, and six-year-old Justin told us that he is “100 percent not injured”; both boys have seat belt burns across their necks), and Seamus had to have a couple stitches above his eye, but otherwise they are — incredibly — unharmed.

Seamus holds a CDL with over 70,000 accident-free miles as a truck driver, and has never been involved in so much as a fender-bender in his personal vehicles. That something like this happened to him of all people scared us in an enormous way, and drove the point home that anything can happen at any time to any one of us. So before you finish reading this: is there anyone in your house you’d like to tell “I love you” to real quick? I’ll wait here.

SO, it’s Labor Day, and who do we have to thank for that? Lessee here…while the real “author” of Labor Day remains a bit of a controversy (two men are credited with its inception in the late 1800s, each named “Maguire” and “McGuire,” interestingly enough), it’s universally agreed that we can thank those nasty, selfish, thuggish labor unions for this day to cook out and be lazy or get stuff done around the house and yard in preparation for fall.

I keed. It’s because of those nasty labor unions that you even have weekends off, or whatever days you take for yourself during your work week. That’s something worth celebrating. Truthfully — and I say this as president of my local teacher union chapter — I wish we didn’t need unions. But what’s been done all those years ago is too far down the line to undo now; we’re stuck with them and we have to make the best of it.

I suppose I should cut this off before I waste away the whole morning. I hope you’re doing exactly what you want to do on this Labor Day. For me, labor resumes tomorrow, but first, lunch with Mavis, some lesson plans and catching up on my recorded Sunday night shows is in order.

Have a great vacation day — fall is around the corner!