Slipping the Surly Bonds of Summer

Okay, I have had it.
Summer is gone, a fall breeze has started to waft in and it's time to stop pussyfootin' around, get back up on my hind legs, be who I am and have some fun.
I actually spent a few moments outdoors this morning, then a mosquito bit me and I freaked out and came back inside, waiting to see if I had West Nile Virus.
I think I lucked out and was spared this time.
Then I went for a haircut this afternoon--just a cut, not a color--and my hairdresser hacked off two inches and uncovered a whole pile of silver gray hair on top of my head.
I am going to stay gray a while, just to remind myself that I earned every fucking strand of it this summer by tolerating a few people in my life long past their freshness date.
God spare me from further sanctimonious gasbags, especially the faux spiritual ones who fail to see the judgmental asshole within.
Harsh, maybe, but at least I know I can be an asshole at times.
This weekend I have to trek up to Austin to assist my siblings in having a giant yard sale to thin out some of my mother's million possessions before she moves to her very sweet new retirement village.
I am heading the likely sibling quibbling off at the pass.
Bellinis to the rescue!
I have packed magic markers, poster boards, little price stickers ...and four bottles of champagne! Luckily all my siblings (and I) are sweetened by the addition of alcohol to the mix.
My philosophical question to ponder this weekend is this:
At what point do people's differences (or similarities) cause friendships to dissolve?
I have a dear friend whom I adore, yet we have started to disagree far too often.
It might be that we are in entirely different places in our lives, and maybe I'm just too impatient with having to negotiate intergenerationally.
I miss my best friend Anna, damn it. She's in Ethiopia for another month. Seven or eight years without an unkind word or harsh thought between us. Maybe she set too high a standard, I dunno.