My sister Janice and I have been tracking for years how crazy people, and things, seem to get the last week of August. Part of it might be a weird grief process as we bid farewell to summer, the season of light, in many ways.

Grief of all kinds produces anxiety. it is always a dynamic process. So even those of us who love autumn best of all might feel some of this anxiety. And people seem to act out in weird ways, too.

To wit:

• My friend's car, stolen from her garage (see post below), was later found in a wooded area burned beyond recognition.
• Another friend was accosted in Riverfront Park by a homeless man who said he was afraid and tried to hug her in an aggressive way. She screamed: Back it up buddy! And he did.
• The panhandlers at the Safeway on Northwest Boulevard were unbelievably aggressive Sunday. They stood in the doorways of the store and begged loudly until they were kicked out.
• A guy my brother knew in childhood called me to tell me that he had gone to school in Spokane with actress Christina Ricci (Adam's Family) in the 1970s. When I pointed out this was impossible, as she never lived here and wasn't born until 1980, he started getting angry.

I know there is a some mental illness going on in the above examples, but things feel a little dicey everywhere this week. 

Anyone else experience the August crazies? What is your theory? Summer grief or something else? 

(AP file photo of a museum-goer looking at the famous painting "The Scream," a painting associated with out-of-control anxiety)

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