<table> </table> Summer&#8217;s over. (Sigh.)</p><p>And it went by so fast, didn&#8217;t it? (Double sigh.)</p><p>Was there anything you wanted to do but didn&#8217;t get around to? Maybe you ran out of time. Maybe you just forgot. Or to be blunt: What did you blow off this summer?</p><p>We approached unsuspecting pedestrians in Westport to get some answers. To soften the blow of our post-summer reality check, we also gave folks the chance to blow bubbles and/or blow into a pinwheel that they got to take home.</p><p>So long, summer. Hello, honesty.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Anne Vieux</span></strong></p><p>22, Kansas City</p><p>and</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Neal Dazey</span></strong></p><p>23, Kansas City</p><p><strong>Anything you blew off this summer?</strong></p><p><strong>Anne:</strong> I didn&#8217;t cook enough. I didn&#8217;t make enough salsa.</p><p><strong>So you let down the salsa crowd?</strong></p><p> I did.</p><p><strong>How about you, pal, what did you blow off this summer?</strong></p><p><strong>Neal:</strong> I wasn&#8217;t able to travel much. No swimming. That&#8217;s about it.</p><p><strong>What about something in the constructive department &#8212; a project or something that didn&#8217;t happen?</strong></p><p> I&#8217;m generally better at deconstructing than constructing.</p><p><strong>Can you deconstruct us right now? What&#8217;s happening right now?</strong></p><p>Not a whole lot.</p><p><strong>That&#8217;s very accurate. </strong><strong>Anything else, Anne?</strong></p><p>I was going to build a tabletop garden for my balcony, and that didn&#8217;t happen.</p><p><strong>Why not?</strong></p><p>I was painting in Italy.</p><p><strong>Good excuse. </strong><strong>Couldn&#8217;t this guy here have helped you out?</strong></p><p>He could have deconstructed a table, probably.</p><p></div> <hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Eve Singleton</span></strong></p><p>40, Kansas City</p><p><strong>Fess up, what did you blow off this summer?</strong></p><p>The only true thing that I had planned over the whole summer was to brush up on my Spanish.</p><p><strong>How did that go?</strong></p><p>Every time I looked at the Spanish book, I was like, &#8220;OK, I&#8217;ll do it tomorrow. OK, I&#8217;ll do it tomorrow. OK, I&#8217;ll do it tomorrow.&#8221; And tomorrow never came. So that&#8217;s really the only thing I blew off &#8212; that and my kids. I blew them off, too. </p><p><strong>Really?</strong></p><p>Well, they&#8217;re 19 and 18, so, you know, they&#8217;re not worried about me anymore.</p><p><strong>They can blow bubbles on their own time.</strong></p><p>That&#8217;s right. I love blowing bubbles, too, almost as much as my kids.</p><p><strong>Anything you want to make sure to get done next summer?</strong></p><p>Actually, I&#8217;m going to go visit my parents. They live in South Carolina. And I&#8217;ve been here for like 13 years. I haven&#8217;t seen them since I left home.</p><p><strong>You wouldn&#8217;t want to blow that off.</strong></p><p>Right, so that&#8217;s a definite plan. I&#8217;m going to take the great-grandkids to see them before they croak.</p><p><strong>Great? Grandkids?</strong></p><p>Yes, can you believe it? I&#8217;m 40, and I have two grandchildren.</p><p><strong>You don&#8217;t look it.</strong></p><p>Thank you! You&#8217;re so sweet! I might take you home.</p><p><strong>What about the man in your life?</strong></p><p>Man, skip him. You talk good to me.</p><p></div> <hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Darrik Getz</span></strong></p><p>17, Shawnee</p><p><strong>You can tell me, what did you blow off this summer?</strong></p><p>I actually blew off several things. My friends and I wanted to make a movie. We always talked about it and planned on it. We actually wrote out scripts and everything. We just never really got around to doing it.</p><p><strong>What kind of a movie?</strong></p><p>We wanted to make a scary movie. It was going to be kind of like a &#8220;Jeepers Creepers&#8221; thing.</p><p><strong>What was the reason for not getting it done?</strong></p><p>Laziness.</p><p><strong>I see.</strong></p><p>We&#8217;re teenagers. We&#8217;re lazy. It was easier just to chill somewhere than to actually go get all the stuff and start filming.</p><p><strong>Were you going to be in the movie?</strong></p><p>I was going to be the lead role, the character who was supposed to save everybody in the end, I guess.</p><p><strong>Well, I guess, you shouldn&#8217;t have blown that off.</strong></p><p>I suppose so.</p><p><strong>What else?</strong></p><p>I&#8217;m interested in fashion design. And I was supposed to go down to the Crossroads District and go to some independent designers and see if I could do internships there. But I never got around to that, either.</p><p><strong>You were too busy not doing the movie, right?</strong></p><p>Yeah, right.</p><p></div> <hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Lisa Ngo</span></strong></p><p>17, Shawnee</p><p><strong>Despite the best of intentions, what did you blow off this summer?</strong></p><p>Actually, having fun, because I&#8217;ve been working all day, six days a week &#8212; and on Sundays I&#8217;m with my family. So it&#8217;s kind of hard to fit in doing something with my friends only at night. And I&#8217;ve got a curfew. My parents are really strict.</p><p><strong>What kind of fun did you forgo?</strong></p><p>Going swimming. Going out of town, probably.</p><p><strong>Where do you work?</strong></p><p>This nail shop at 56th and Troost. My family owns it, so I work there.</p><p><strong>Oh, I get it. You really can&#8217;t get out of that gig.</strong></p><p>Exactly, because my parents need me, but at the same time I kind of like to make money. I&#8217;m trying to save up so I can move out when I&#8217;m 18.</p><p><strong>Did you try any excuses on your parents?</strong></p><p>Yeah, on Friday nights I did try some.</p><p><strong>Let&#8217;s hear one.</strong></p><p>I would be like, &#8220;Mom, I have to go to this baby shower.&#8221; I&#8217;ll just lie.</p><p><strong>Do your parents appreciate the sacrifice you&#8217;ve made?</strong></p><p>Probably not, because they want me to make money. They don&#8217;t want me to be a bum on the street or something.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Jessica Strong</span></strong></p><p>48, Kansas City</p><p><b>Was there anything you just blew off this summer?</b></p><p>Between working two jobs, I did pretty good. I followed through on everything I promised myself that I’d do.</p><p><b>Then I’d call you a solid citizen.</b></p><p>I’m just energized right now.</p><p><b>Do you only associate with people who do everything they intend to?</b></p><p>No, not really. There are some people that I know who sort of drop the ball every now and then. But it doesn’t affect me.</p><p><b>And there’s not a single thing you dropped the ball on this summer?</b></p><p>Well, OK — my fault — I was going to join the Rose Society, and I just didn’t get around to it. It was my goal to do it this summer for my mom’s memory, but things just got really busy and hectic. Before I knew it, it was September and I hadn’t done anything.</p><p><b>Why did summer seem to last forever when we were kids?</b></p><p>Well, when we were kids, we didn’t have to worry about anything.</p><p><b>What do you have to worry about now?</b></p><p>Ah, let’s see: Bills, rent, money.</p><p><b>Blow it off!</b></p><p>I can’t blow it off, because if I don’t pay things, I’ll get a thing in the mail or a phone call.</p><p><b>Don’t answer the phone.</b></p><p>Yeah, well, I’ve tried the pretend-I’m-the-maid thing, like I don’t understand English. But after the first two times, they sort of know it’s me.</p><p><b>Do you have a plan for your pinwheel?</b></p><p>It’s going to go in the garden. And the wind will blow off all the bad stuff.</p><p><b>What’s the bad stuff?</b></p><p>Anything that’s coming toward me that’s negative. It’ll just blow it out of my way, and I won’t have to worry.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Josh Rohr</span></strong></p><p>20, Kansas City</p><p>I do kind of want a pinwheel.</p><p><b>I think we can help you out with that. How about blowing some bubbles?</b></p><p>I’m not a big fan of bubbles.</p><p><b>I’ll blow the bubbles, you blow the pinwheel.</b></p><p>Sounds like a deal.</p><p><b>Now what did you blow off this summer?</b></p><p>Kick flips.</p><p><b>What’s that?</b> Skating.</p><p><b>Oh, you’re a skateboard guy.</b></p><p>Yeah, well, I’m attempting. I’m an aspiring skateboarder.</p><p><b>So what’s a kick flip?</b></p><p>It’s basically the trick right after an ollie. It’s where you make the board go sideways. I tried and didn’t master it. I was more into stalls and pop shuvits and impossibles.</p><p><b>I have no idea what you’re talking about.</b></p><p>We should probably get off the subject.</p><p><b>Ever hurt yourself?</b></p><p>All over, in places that I don’t even want to talk about.</p><p><b>Well, then we won’t.</b></p><p>Thank you.</p><p><b>Can you skateboard with a pinwheel?</b></p><p>Probably.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Melissa Merriam</span></strong></p><p>30, with son Luke Merriam 6 months, Overland Park and Donna Jacobson 35, Lee’s Summit</p><p><b>Hey, Mom, what did you blow off this summer?</b></p><p><b>Melissa:</b> We blew off about everything, so we could have a fun summer and go play in the park. And Mommy has two jobs, so we didn’t clean our house. We didn’t do anything.</p><p><b>Luke, what did you blow off this summer?</b></p><p><b>Luke:</b> (silence).</p><p><b>I couldn’t have said it better myself. What about you, Donna?</p><p>Donna</b>: I blew off spring cleaning.</p><p><b>In the summer?</b></p><p>Well, it rolls into summer. I make a list of what I need to clean from top to bottom.</p><p><b>What was at the top and what was at the bottom?</b></p><p>Dust.</p><p><b>Luke, do you have any dusting tips?</b></p><p><b>Luke</b>: (silence)</p><p><b>Was that pretty much your take this summer, Donna?</b></p><p>Yeah.</p><p><b>Well, summer’s not for cleaning.</b></p><p>Right. I spent it at the pool with my niece and nephew, so I can’t complain.</p><p><b>You didn’t blow off the pool then?</b></p><p>No, I did not.</p><p><b>Which is why you still have such a glowing tan?</b></p><p>Exactly.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">Brian Gallmeyer</span></strong></p><p>33, Overland Park</p><p><b>What did you blow off this summer?</b></p><p>Over at my friend Madeline’s house, I blew off getting the back porch completely finished.</p><p><b>Did you get it half finished?</b></p><p>Somewhat.</p><p><b>Would you say maybe 25 percent?</b></p><p>About 30.</p><p><b>That’s not so bad. Was she appreciative?</b></p><p>Kind of. She wished it would have gotten done. But since it didn’t, she’s going to tolerate it and work with me.</p><p><b>What else could you ask for?</b></p><p>I could ask for more time in the day.</p><p><b>How about something just for you that you didn’t do?</b></p><p>I didn’t take the pontoon around the lake. The weather was gorgeous for it, and I just happened to blow it off.</p><p><b>But how come?</b></p><p>Really no good reason. I don’t know why I didn’t do it.</p><p><b>Congratulations! That’s the essence of blowing stuff off. Because you have no idea why it didn’t happen, right?</b></p><p>Correct.</p><p><b>You’re completely clueless.</b></p><p>Correct.</p><p><b>Thank you.</b></p><p>You’re welcome.</p><p></div>