The Dog Days of Summer are upon us.

At least, when it comes to the life of a sportswriter.

I know, I know. There's just no pleasing me. Back in February I was writing about all the different sports that go in during the spring semester at school.

There was the track, powerlifting, baseball, softball, baseball .... and I went on about boys and girls geams, etc., etc.

I already miss all of that, go figure.

It sure was easier to plan out my week during all those competitions. And it was no problem filling a sports page.

Now, I spend a lot of time just thinking. Thinking about what I can write about, what feature story I can do. And I do have a few ideas that I'm going to try ... if I can get ahold of coaches later in the month.

For now though, I'll just try to remember these are semi-lazy days to enjoy now before everything speeds up again.

•••

So ... now the countdown begins.

"Countdown to what?" you might ask.

High school football is the answer.

Two-a-day practices typically begin in August, a bit before classes begin. Things will begin to speed up again when those begin.

Now, I'm going to have to check on some things. I don't know if the school here does spring practices. If they do, then they don't start playing until "Week One."

If they don't have spring practices, then they can start a week earlier during what the UIL calls "Week Zero."

That came up a few years ago as a way for schools to be able to schedule an open date in the week before starting district competition — or, at least, that's the way it ususally works.

And that's the best I understand of that UIL rule about the start time of football season Week Zero is usually the last Friday in August with Week One being the first Friday in September.

But most of you probably already know when the season here will start, since you were here for the football season last year.

I'm still on the learning curve.

•••

I'm looking forward to football season actually. It's been years since I covered a game from the sidelines.

In my more than a decade at a daily newspaper, I covered games from the pressbox, since we had a full-time photographer.

That won't be the case here, since I'll have to do my own photography. And that will necessitate being on the sideline for at least the first half. And once down on the field for that long, I'll probably end up there for the entire game.

When I started in the newspaper business, it was covering a 2A high school football team. Plus, I was doing stats for the team so it helped to be on the sideline.

And it's kinda cool to be on the sidelines, hearing the kids yell, having to sidestep a running back going out of bounds at full speed, and taking a picture then hurrying up to put down the result of the play on my clipboard.

Speaking of which, I'm going to need a clipboard again. Been a while since I needed one.