She's often unpredictable and capricious, changing her mood whenever she wants. Like the months that came before her, she might warm your heart in the heat of a moment, but then during the hours of the dark, she'll send a chill down your spine warning you that changes are coming soon.

To the children, she is often not welcomed. When she first appears, someone will shout, "Summer's almost over!" Another will say, "Only a few days left before school starts again." During her stay, TV will show that commercial with a smiling father riding upon a shopping cart full of school supplies while the song plays, "It's the most wonderful time of the year."Lady A is her name and she is our calendar girl for the month of August. She offers us of our final breaths of summer before September turns the page into October when autumn blazes its color across the landscape.You can never be sure what to expect from our lady. A day at the beach might be spent huddling the family under blankets while 50-degree winds howl across the ocean surf, or you could be spraying that last bottle of sunscreen on your skin as the kids dance in the wet sand under a scorching hot sun.American actor and musician Henry Rollins said this about our eighth month of the year. "August brings into sharp focus and a furious boil of everything I've been listening to in the late spring and summer." I love his sounds of the summer season coming to a "furious boil" before it's about to let off steam and slowly evaporate with the advance of autumn.Let's be honest. Although the official end of summer is in late September, everyone believes it stops in August. Just look around you this coming week. You'll see football and soccer practices, back-to-school sales, corn harvesting and even Halloween items for sale in stores.Lady A is a month of transition. We often think past her days to the two seasons ahead, and yet, just when our ignorance of our time with her peaks, she'll slap our faces with a 90-degree afternoon followed by a 50-degree night, a blissful union of summer and fall, all in a glorious 24 hours.I recall an August or two from my youth when many days were beleaguered with long, cold rains that chased away the serenity of summer. Nothing becomes more depressing than when our lady delivers to us the opposite of what we want to happen, but this is the way that nature mirrors human experience. Expectations are crushed by what we cannot control. A planned vacation is ruined by illness. A wedding is canceled because the loving couple is in love no more. Lady A can satisfy our expectations with beautiful warm days and then stun us with a weekend blasted by a cold, wet wind.August reminds me that nothing can stay the same. June and July intoxicate our minds with warm breezes and crystal skies. We are romanced by starlit nights enlightened by what Native Americans called strawberry moons. Then Lady A marches in and erases our fantasy of an endless summer with a harbinger of fall temperatures. As she forecasts her weather changes, our thoughts shift from water slides to hay rides, from baseball games to football games, from ice cream to pumpkin pie.In our dreams during the stark middle of winter, Lady A gets none of the respect we give June and July. She always comes in third place in our minds. She gets the bronze medal, but she captures the gold when it comes to being the month with the highest birthrate in America.Astrologers call those born from the womb of our lady Leos or Virgos, depending on the time of the month of their birth dates. Leos are said to have warm personalities and are action-oriented. They desire to be loved and admired. Virgos pay attention to details, love to help others, but can be overly critical. Those "on the cusp," or born within both the Leo-Virgo signs can have a restless energy about them, unsure of who they want to be. All of these traits are perfect reflections of our fickle Lady A.Be aware that she can place you under her spell. She will seduce you with lingering summer days, but just when you have succumbed to her charm, she'll pull back the season to warn you that these tropical breezes will soon shift north into blustery winds.No matter what she chooses to do, I'm going to take her hand and walk with her to the end of her 31st day when she will wave goodbye and say, "See you again next year!"Rich Strack can be reached at

katehep11@gmail.com.